The story of the trans-Himalayan Ladakh, which consists of Buddhist-majority Leh district and Shia majority Kargil district, is no less inspiring. The Shia Muslims are not only intensely pro-India and rabidly anti-Pakistan, but also ardent supporters of Indian Army. They have all along, like the Gujjar and Bakerwal Muslims, helped the Army and paramilitary forces in their anti-insurgency operations. Jammu and Ladakh, which constitute over 88 per cent of the State’s land area, are intensely pro-India.
Kashmir, like Jammu, also has ten districts and all are almost 100 per cent Muslim. Kashmir consists of a Valley and mountainous areas. Its mountainous and hilly areas constitute over 80 per cent of Kashmir’s land area, basically house non-Kashmiri population, mostly Gujjars, Bakerwals and Pathowari-speaking Muslims. All, barring a few disgruntled elements here and there, have nothing to do with the ongoing separatist and communal movement in the Valley. They, like the bulk of Jammu Muslims, consistently urge the Centre to confer on them the ST status so that they obtain their due share in the political and economic processes in the State. It is not only the Gujjar, Bakerwal and Pathowari-speaking or Pahari-speaking Muslims in Kashmir whose participation in the separatist movement is almost nil. The Shia Muslims in Kashmir, barring a few thousands who are under the influence Hurriyat leader Abbas Ansari and a couple of other Shia religious leaders, including Maulvi Iftikar Ansari, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader, are bitterly opposed to the Kashmiri leadership, both separatist and “mainstream”. They say that the Kashmiri Sunni leadership, which controls power and dominates and leads all political and separatist outfits, have rendered them unreal and ineffective for all practical purposes and rigorously excluded them from all walks of life
