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.
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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.”
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