Skip to main content

J&K's Jamaat-e-Islami "misleading" educated youth into militancy, regrets Islamic site

A top Islamic site, claiming to map agenda for the 21st century, has taken strong exception to the Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir (JIJ&K), a cadre-based religio-political organisation in J&K, likening Indian administration as “Pharaoh’s era” in Kashmir. Distinct from the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind, JIJ&K in a statement said: “Indian forces have devised a sinister plan of genocide of Kashmiri youth on the same pattern the Pharaoh of Egypt had once ordered to kill the male infants of Bani-Israel in Egypt.”
The statement continued, “The history stands a witness to the fact that despite all his barbaric and suppressive tactics, Pharaoh along with his huge and powerful armies got devastated and destroyed by the divine will. All other tyrant powers of the world have met the same fate and the oppressed people have ultimately won.” It appealed to United Nations (UN) and other international human rights bodies to “take effective steps against the forces involved in these human rights violations…”
Insisting that JIJ&K is seeking to “mislead the Muslim youths while at the same time misinforming the international bodies, particularly the UN”, the South Asia-based Islamic site with simultaneous editions in English, French, Urdu, Hindi and Arabic, says in a commentary, “Propelling the Kashmir issue into religious antagonism is precisely how the militant ideologues have swayed a section of Kashmiri youth.”
Authored by Ghulam Rasool Dehlvi, a classical Islamic scholar and an English-Arabic-Urdu writer, currently PhD scholar in Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, the commentary states, “In fact, the false narrative of victimhood and the psyche of retaliation spread by religious fanatics among the valley’s emotional and angry youths are catastrophic.”
Regretting that a “new and more virulent form of militancy has unfolded in J&K", the article says, “It has shifted from the cauldron of the gullible and semi-literate youths to the academic arena including even the PhD scholars.”
It adds, “Among the well-educated militants was a young PhD scholar, Manan Bashir Wani who quit his doctorate in Allied Geology and joined the militant ranks in January this year. Recently, he got killed in an encounter which encounter broke out at Shartgund Bala village in Handwara.”
“Tellingly”, it continues, “Manan came from the area where one of the top ulema of Deoband, Allama Anwar Shah Kashmiri was born. He is considered an authoritative Indian Islamic theologian of the 20th century for his notable exegetical contributions in classical Islamic sciences, particularly in the Hadith. Manan’s village is adjacent to that of Shah Faesal, the first Kashmiri IAS topper who is seen as source of inspiration for many Muslim Civil Services aspirants.”
The article wonders, “What indoctrinated Mannan into choosing militancy over the scholarly path of late Anwar Shah or the cotemporary youth icon Shah Faisal”, adding, “Clearly, the rebellious Muslim youths appear unmindful of the dangerous turn that the extremism has taken in Kashmir. A utopian death cult bred by the foreign interests and inspired by the radical jihadist outfits in Pakistan in particular and the Middle East in general has held the pluralistic Islamic tradition in Kashmir hostage.”
“Remember the death of Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani in mid-2016 whose funeral prayer set off a fresh wave of militancy in the valley. Similarly, the funeral prayer for the slain PhD scholar-turned-militant is seen as call for fresh recruitments into militancy”, Dehlvi says.
Dehlvi
He adds, “Just like the PhD scholar Manan Wani, Sabzar Ahmad was another research scholar-turned-militant. He was rather an IAS aspirant. Going by his family’s statement, he was preparing for the civil services exams and had joined Jamia Milia Islamia in PhD programme before he joined the militancy in 2016.”
The article says, “According to a senior police official posted in South Kashmir, a number of militants have engineering background while some others are graduates. There are scholars in their ranks as well. The list includes even an assistant professor from Ganderbal, Muhammad Rafi Bhat who was recently killed in an encounter in Pulwama.”
“More to the point, Zakir Moosa, the current chief of Al-Qaeda’s offshoot in Kashmir Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind was also an engineering student. Even the present operational chief of Hizb Riyaz Naikoo is a non-medical graduate”, the article states, adding, “Similarly, Eisa Fazili from Srinagar, Syed Owais Shafi from Kokernang and Aabid Nazir from Shopian were all counted as brilliant students of bright future. But they joined the militant ranks and ruined their promising life and educational career.”

Comments

TRENDING

When Pakistanis whispered: ‘end military rule’ — A Moscow memoir

During the recent anti-terror operation inside Pakistan by the Government of India, called Operation Sindoor — a name some feminists consider patently patriarchal, even though it’s officially described as a tribute to the wives of the 26 husbands killed in the terrorist strike — I was reminded of my Moscow stint, which lasted for seven long years, from 1986 to 1993.

Ahmedabad's civic chaos: Drainage woes, waterlogging, and the illusion of Olympic dreams

In response to my blog on overflowing gutter lines at several spots in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur, a heavily populated area, a close acquaintance informed me that it's not just the middle-class housing societies that are affected by the nuisance. Preeti Das, who lives in a posh locality in what is fashionably called the SoBo area, tells me, "Things are worse in our society, Applewood."

Tracking a lost link: Soviet-era legacy of Gujarati translator Atul Sawani

The other day, I received a message from a well-known activist, Raju Dipti, who runs an NGO called Jeevan Teerth in Koba village, near Gujarat’s capital, Gandhinagar. He was seeking the contact information of Atul Sawani, a translator of Russian books—mainly political and economic—into Gujarati for Progress Publishers during the Soviet era. He wanted to collect and hand over scanned soft copies, or if possible, hard copies, of Soviet books translated into Gujarati to Arvind Gupta, who currently lives in Pune and is undertaking the herculean task of collecting and making public soft copies of Soviet books that are no longer available in the market, both in English and Indian languages.

RP Gupta a scapegoat to help Govt of India manage fallout of Adani case in US court?

RP Gupta, a retired 1987-batch IAS officer from the Gujarat cadre, has found himself at the center of a growing controversy. During my tenure as the Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar (1997–2012), I often interacted with him. He struck me as a straightforward officer, though I never quite understood why he was never appointed to what are supposed to be top-tier departments like industries, energy and petrochemicals, finance, or revenue.

Environmental report raises alarm: Sabarmati one of four rivers with nonylphenol contamination

A new report by Toxics Link , an Indian environmental research and advocacy organisation based in New Delhi, in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund , a global non-profit headquartered in New York, has raised the alarm that Sabarmati is one of five rivers across India found to contain unacceptable levels of nonylphenol (NP), a chemical linked to "exposure to carcinogenic outcomes, including prostate cancer in men and breast cancer in women."

PharmEasy: The only online medical store which revises prices upwards after confirming the order

For senior citizens — especially those without a family support system — ordering medicines online can be a great relief. Shruti and I have been doing this for the last couple of years, and with considerable success. We upload a prescription, receive a verification call from a doctor, and within two or three days, the medicines are delivered to our doorstep.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

Revisiting Gijubhai: Pioneer of child-centric education and the caste debate

It was Krishna Kumar, the well-known educationist, who I believe first introduced me to the name — Gijubhai Badheka (1885–1939). Hailing from Bhavnagar, known as the cultural capital of the Saurashtra region of Gujarat, Gijubhai, Kumar told me during my student days, made significant contributions to the field of pedagogy — something that hasn't received much attention from India's education mandarins. At that time, Kumar was my tutorial teacher at Kirorimal College, Delhi University.

A sector under siege? War and real estate: Navigating uncertainty in India's expanding market

I was a little surprised when I received an email alert from a top real estate consultant, Anarock Group , titled "Exploring War’s Effects on Indian Real Estate—When Conflict Meets Concrete," authored by its regional director and head of research, Dr. Prashant Thakur. I had thought that the business would wholeheartedly support what is considered a strong response to the dastardly terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Operation Sindoor.