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SIDDHARTH ZARABI | OCT 24, 2014
ISIS flags in Kashmir have caused concern in Indian security establishment. (Image via Twitter:@RamiAlLolah)
Last month the headlines across the world were focused on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and the horrors that it was wrecking across a large swath of territory in that region. The gruesome images and the sheer brutality of the terrorist horde saw the Western world sit up and take notice. US President Barack Obama shed some of his trademark ambivalence on war and decided to engage the murderers. A few weeks later the assault is being faulted by some as too little and too late, but the possibility of US boots on the ground adding to the aerial bombardment remains remote.
Be that as it may, the recent displays of the ISIS flag in Srinagar, the capital city of Jammu & Kashmir, have caused some concern in the Indian security establishment. The establishment sees the provocative flag display as an attempt by some terrorist sympathisers to seek attention. The refrain is that there is, as yet, no evidence of direct ISIS involvement in these incidents. But then that perhaps will never be, for the nature of Islamic terror is such that numerous outfits, with no direct connections, spring up in different parts of the world and wreak havoc. The goals are the same: the establishment of an Islamic nation, be it in Africa, Chechnya, Arabia and elsewhere.
Jammu & Kashmir has had its own version of the ISIS many years before the terror outfit was even born. The winter of 1989 saw multiple, gruesome killings of the Hindus in the Kashmir Valley. Unlike the attacks on Hindus in terror torn Punjab, including brutalities like the Lalru bus murders, the attacks in Kashmir had a chilling edge.
Much before the ISIS beheaded Western journalists, the Hizbul Mujahideen assassinated Lassi Koul, the station head of public broadcaster Doordarshan in Kashmir. Pumped with bullets, he was left to die on the street for broadcasting programmes considered un-Islamic. Another journalist, Mohammed Shaban Vakil, the Editor of the Urdu language daily Al-Safa was also shot dead for what many believe was his fearless writing and refusal to publish terrorist propaganda.
A lady teacher, Sarla Ganju, was brutally raped and then cut into two in a saw mill. Other bodies of Hindus killed wantonly those days bore deep marks of torture and defilement.
Kashmiri Muslim terrorists Bitta Karate, Noor Khan, Yasin Malik, Mushtaq Latram and countless others were blamed, but never brought to justice to date. The temples were desecrated later, once the few hundred thousand Hindus were forced out of the Valley by the summer of 1990.
This is a comparison that must be made, for it is central to what the ISIS is doing today. Shorn of the debate on who created the ISIS, its sources of finance and arms, the key is its ideology and its style. In every single instance, barring the ritualistic beheadings, the ISIS is doing to non-Muslims exactly what the “home grown” terrorists did in Kashmir a quarter century ago. The difference in global awareness is due to social media bringing out the horrifying images of brutalised and defiled Yazidi women.
Then, as perhaps now, Kashmiri young men, of merit and otherwise, went out of the way to seek and establish the dominance of Islam in social, political, cultural and ethnic terms. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan played a role and the leftovers of military material from Afghanistan found its way into the apple orchards of Kashmir. The similarities with the ISIS are hard to ignore!
As of now, there is no credible evidence of Kashmiri youth joining up with the ISIS, something that has already been discovered in the United Kingdom for instance. The concerns remain alive, given the recent Al-Qaeda declaration on making India a part of the global Islamic battlefield.
Imagine what would transpire if someone from Kashmir or Kerala were discovered to be fighting with the ISIS. There are some disconcerting reports in this regard, but the larger picture is that the ISIS is the latest to have captured the imagination of Muslim youth who are enamoured with the prospect of bringing in the “Nizam-e-Mustafa” or the rule of Islam.
Hopefully, better sense will prevail and India, home to the second largest Muslim population in the world, shall be spared any further horrors on this front. But, the price of liberty and freedom is measured in blood, and that is a price that the nation must be ready to pay to preserve the values that constitute the idea of India.
ISIS brutalities remind of Hindu killings in Kashmir | India News Analysis Opinions on Niti Central
Last month the headlines across the world were focused on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) and the horrors that it was wrecking across a large swath of territory in that region. The gruesome images and the sheer brutality of the terrorist horde saw the Western world sit up and take notice. US President Barack Obama shed some of his trademark ambivalence on war and decided to engage the murderers. A few weeks later the assault is being faulted by some as too little and too late, but the possibility of US boots on the ground adding to the aerial bombardment remains remote.
Be that as it may, the recent displays of the ISIS flag in Srinagar, the capital city of Jammu & Kashmir, have caused some concern in the Indian security establishment. The establishment sees the provocative flag display as an attempt by some terrorist sympathisers to seek attention. The refrain is that there is, as yet, no evidence of direct ISIS involvement in these incidents. But then that perhaps will never be, for the nature of Islamic terror is such that numerous outfits, with no direct connections, spring up in different parts of the world and wreak havoc. The goals are the same: the establishment of an Islamic nation, be it in Africa, Chechnya, Arabia and elsewhere.
Jammu & Kashmir has had its own version of the ISIS many years before the terror outfit was even born. The winter of 1989 saw multiple, gruesome killings of the Hindus in the Kashmir Valley. Unlike the attacks on Hindus in terror torn Punjab, including brutalities like the Lalru bus murders, the attacks in Kashmir had a chilling edge.
Much before the ISIS beheaded Western journalists, the Hizbul Mujahideen assassinated Lassi Koul, the station head of public broadcaster Doordarshan in Kashmir. Pumped with bullets, he was left to die on the street for broadcasting programmes considered un-Islamic. Another journalist, Mohammed Shaban Vakil, the Editor of the Urdu language daily Al-Safa was also shot dead for what many believe was his fearless writing and refusal to publish terrorist propaganda.
A lady teacher, Sarla Ganju, was brutally raped and then cut into two in a saw mill. Other bodies of Hindus killed wantonly those days bore deep marks of torture and defilement.
Kashmiri Muslim terrorists Bitta Karate, Noor Khan, Yasin Malik, Mushtaq Latram and countless others were blamed, but never brought to justice to date. The temples were desecrated later, once the few hundred thousand Hindus were forced out of the Valley by the summer of 1990.
This is a comparison that must be made, for it is central to what the ISIS is doing today. Shorn of the debate on who created the ISIS, its sources of finance and arms, the key is its ideology and its style. In every single instance, barring the ritualistic beheadings, the ISIS is doing to non-Muslims exactly what the “home grown” terrorists did in Kashmir a quarter century ago. The difference in global awareness is due to social media bringing out the horrifying images of brutalised and defiled Yazidi women.
Then, as perhaps now, Kashmiri young men, of merit and otherwise, went out of the way to seek and establish the dominance of Islam in social, political, cultural and ethnic terms. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan played a role and the leftovers of military material from Afghanistan found its way into the apple orchards of Kashmir. The similarities with the ISIS are hard to ignore!
As of now, there is no credible evidence of Kashmiri youth joining up with the ISIS, something that has already been discovered in the United Kingdom for instance. The concerns remain alive, given the recent Al-Qaeda declaration on making India a part of the global Islamic battlefield.
Imagine what would transpire if someone from Kashmir or Kerala were discovered to be fighting with the ISIS. There are some disconcerting reports in this regard, but the larger picture is that the ISIS is the latest to have captured the imagination of Muslim youth who are enamoured with the prospect of bringing in the “Nizam-e-Mustafa” or the rule of Islam.
Hopefully, better sense will prevail and India, home to the second largest Muslim population in the world, shall be spared any further horrors on this front. But, the price of liberty and freedom is measured in blood, and that is a price that the nation must be ready to pay to preserve the values that constitute the idea of India.
ISIS brutalities remind of Hindu killings in Kashmir | India News Analysis Opinions on Niti Central
