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It
is somewhat bizarre that a powerful militant organization equipped with
highly lethal weapons and committed suicidal cadres of mujahideen should
have felt insecure by an impending visit of a few dozen of Kashmiri
Pandits to Kashmir with the intention of performing befitting death rites
of their martyrs.
The
contemplated Pandit Mahashraadha ceremony of 6th August 2006 at Martand
(Matan) was thwarted by the Harakatu’l-Jihad- Islami terrorist
organization, which issued a letter of threatening only days before the
ceremony would take place. Since none of the above mentioned militant
organizations repudiated the contents of the letter, one is led to
believe that it is a real and not a fake one. Even the Hurriyat and separatist political parties did
not repudiate the threat. Here is the text of the letter in question.
Harakatu’l-Jihad-e
Islami
Kashmiri
Pandits, who abandoned their native land in order to fully facilitate the
traitors of the war for freedom in the Valley of Kashmir and the
genocidal intentions of Jagmohan against the Muslims, are sternly advised
to desist from any action that would make them informers against the
freedom fighters.
Our
organization endorses the joint statement of al-Arifeen, al-Nasireen,
Farzandan-I Millat and New Kashmir Movement, issued by them on 22 July
2006 to the anti-national (meaning anti-Muslim) Kashmiri Pandits in which
conditions were laid down that they should confess their intentions of
Muslim killings, their sins (against the Muslims), their serious crimes,
tender apology to the Muslims and join the war of freedom.
In a
recent session, our organization, pronounced the impious resolution of
the Kashmiri Pandits as utterly misleading. In it they (Pandits) had made
no secret of their resolve to project some Kashmiri Pandits as “martyrs”
who had been liquidated by setting afoot performance of religious rites
in the region of Mattan in Islamabad.
Our
organization warns the Pandits that if they hazard coming to Kashmir they
will have to bear the consequences immediately after they show up in the
valley. (In such an eventuality) neither the Prime Minister of Bharat nor
its puppet Chief Minister (of J&K) nor the army can protect them.
The
absconding Pandits would do well to confess their crimes and with folded
hands beg apology from the Muslims. As long as they do not accept the
conditions set forth by the organization, their path (to Kashmir) remains
closed on them.
The
letter hurls all conceivable accusation on the Pandits: they are
absconders, they had nexus with the traitors of “freedom war”, they
encouraged Jagmohan’s intentions of the massacre of Muslims, they are
informers etc. etc.
One
significant regimen of the planners of “freedom war” in Kashmir is
disinformation. But what the non-militant Muslims of Kashmir speak in
private, either within their close circles or with their “not too bad”
Pandits in exile, is the reverse of what they speak in public. A militant who had abandoned the
gun told me once that after interacting with some Pandits, myself
included, he had to disbelieve all that had been said to him (during
brainwashing) about the Pandits.
He regretfully ruminated the indiscreet indoctrination to which he
had been subjected by the ISI during the training in arms in PoK. Hatred and animus against the
Pandits are the first requisite of the plan of “war for freedom” in the
valley.
The
“war for freedom” in Kashmir is actually the war of the faithful against
“Hindu India” though India is also a home to the second largest
population of the Muslims in the world.
Kashmir
Muslim warriors kept their mission of training in ISI camps in PoK a top
secret never disclosed even to their parents and closest relatives, leave
aside the Pandits. They began their “freedom war” with the gunning down
of innocent Kashmiri Pandits followed by stern warnings to them to leave
Kashmir at any cost. The ruling party of the time (1990), covertly in
league with the gun-wielding Islamic warriors, found the escape route in
destabilizing the state administration further by suddenly quitting the
government and shirking their responsibility to civil society. The
runaway ministers occupied
government bungalows in Jammu under high security provided by the Indian
government and watched from distance how in the valley they had brought
the people to the brink of disaster. If anybody obstructed the “war for freedom”, it was
only the Kashmiri political leadership that had become apprehensive of
losing its positions of power and hobnobbed with all shades of ideologies
and their upholders. It were they who had roughed the election of 1986.
But the "freedom warriors" took on the Pandits who were nowhere
in the picture.
The
Pandits have little regrets of their compatriots chasing them away from
their native land. What pains us is that those who actually manipulate
them have nothing in common with them except religion. Even in the matter
of religion, their traditions, life style, social structure, historical
background, cultural sources etc. are at great variance. And they manipulate them for
their self-aggrandizement only.
The
Pandits are aware that Kashmir militants are neither thinking nor acting
independently. They have been roped in by international Islamic radical
movement with the aim of realizing the dream of an Islamic Caliphate from
Spain to Indonesia. In pursuit of this dream, the radical Islamists are
facing stiff resistance from western liberal forces.
The
Pandits are aware that the so-called war of civilizations, a nomenclature
much espoused by the Islamic radicals, is, in essence, a conflict and
contradiction within the Islamic fold and not outside it. This faith is
on the horns of dilemma whether it should go along modernism and
liberalism championed by the west or remains glued to a millennia and
half old desert tradition.
Since the protagonists of former ideology would like to take
recourse to logic and free debate, the radicals must perforce stifle
their voice. We have in our times the unsung heroes like Sheikh Muhammad
Kabbani and Salman Rushdie. The animus of Islamic diehard radicals
towards reformists goes back to late 12th century when great and liberal
Central Asian thinkers like Al-Farabi, Al-Kindi and Ibn Sina attached
immense importance to the science of logic as the key to interpretation
of scriptures. The rise of Ghazali (14th century) who denigrated the
Aristotelian school of thought among the Muslims with his radical
stereotype was welcomed by the Islamic orthodoxy and local satrapy
combine.
As
the internal strife among the Muslim is deepening and widening, albeit
imperceptibly at the moment, the orthodoxy must perforce demonstrate its
strength visibly and materially. In pursuit of this compelling urge they
are looking for and taking on what is now termed “soft targets”. The unarmed and defenseless
Pandits of Kashmir, the innocent work force in NY Trade Towers, the
unsuspecting commuters in London tube or Madrid or Bombay train or night
club goers in Bali are all sitting ducks and soft targets on which the
radical musclemen can rain bullets and bombs. But they will not fight
their real adversary in open simply because they cannot.
The
phenomenon of Islamic theo-fascists choosing to target the innocent
people speaks of their inherent cowardice. As they cannot face logic and
reason, which is likely to explode myths, entrenched in their heads, they
have to kill the innocent people no matter if the holy book disallows it.
But
undoubtedly this is only a passing phase, and in a state of equilibrium,
which is the law of nature, Islam as a great faith will be able to
present its humanistic and positive face and endear it to the
rationalists wherever they are. They will understand in due course of
time that the strength of a faith like Islam does not lie in hatred and
mayhem but in debate and discussion. They will have to behave and
convince the world that they are living in the 21st and not the 6th
century A.D.
Therefore
our regret is that our compatriots in Kashmir, who may boast of having
banished the Pandits from their homeland will find to their surprise that
how naively they played in the hands of those who had an axe to
grind. It may be easy to sow
the seeds of hatred and animus but the end product generally becomes
counter-productive.
For
nearly half a century, the people of Kashmir, irrespective of caste and
creed, fought hand in hand to remove autocratic rule and usher in an era
of freedom. In 1947, the people of the State of Jammu and Kashmir became
free for the first time in their history. Now they were the unhindered
architects of their destiny.
Alas, that freedom was quickly snatched from their hands and as in
mediaeval times, the valley was again relapsed into the environs of chaos
and confusion.
What
are the so-called freedom fighters fighting for in Kashmir? Don’t they want to be governed by
their elected representatives? Don’t they want to be governed by the
constitution, which their own representatives framed? Don’t they want to
protect and preserve their traditions, culture and life style? If they do
not want all this, then what is the meaning of “freedom” from their point
of view?
The
Pandits are part and parcel of Kashmir, its history, its society, its
culture, its aspirations and it’s well - being. If a few gun wielding
goons have issued them threatening, they should not feel discouraged.
While pitying the cowardice of these gun wielders, the Pandits should not
underestimate the goodwill and sensibilities of a vast majority of
Kashmiri Muslims, most of whom are as critical of radicalism and violence
as the Pandits themselves are.
(The writer is the former
Director of the Centre of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University,
Srinagar)
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