Pahalgam terrorist attack: Local rescuers show the path for maintaining inter-faith harmony

By Bharat Dogra 

On April 22 in one of the most inhuman terrorist attacks seen in India, terrorists killed 26 entirely innocent tourists and injured several others in the tourist resort of Baisaran Meadow, located in the famous Pahalgam area of Kashmir.

While the terrorists fired indiscriminately initially, it soon became clear that they were targeting tourists in particular, and among them they were more specifically targeting Hindu men.

In such a situation the local Muslim people may have stayed back quietly, considering that their position was safe, but this is not the way Sayyad Adil Hussain looked at the situation. A local youth from a remote village who earned his livelihood from providing mules to tourists, Adil just could not bear to see innocent people being killed in such a cruel way. Forgetting the threat to his own life, in anguish he shouted at the terrorists—why are you killing innocent persons. The terrorists responded by shooting at him too and he died on the spot.

However some eye witness accounts have stated that Adil went much beyond merely raising his voice. A woman tourist said that he had started fighting the terrorists despite being unarmed himself and according to another account he tried to snatch the gun of one of the terrorists(see report in Dainik Tribune, April 24).

Omar Abdullah, Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, went to attend the last rites of Adil and to console the family. He praised the exceptional courage and deep humanity of Adil. Despite the terror conditions, hundreds of people gathered to pay their homage to the brave youth. 

While Adil made the supreme sacrifice, several other local (Muslim) persons also took risks to rescue endangered tourists and provide shelter to them. An elderly tourist from Gujarat told the reporter of Dainik Bhaskar newspaper that in the midst of firing local shopkeepers and mule-owners appeared like angels to rush injured persons to hospital. Another family from Maharashtra told the newspaper that at the time of the attack a taxi driver, also named Adil, provided them shelter and later arranged for food. A trader from Chattisgarh had come with an 11 member group, including children, for a holiday. He told the newspaper that a local trader Nazakat Ali had rescued them from a dangerous situation at the time of firing. At the same time, several mosques had opened their doors and arranged food for stranded tourists and other passengers in the aftermath of the terror attack (See Dainik Bhaskar April 24).

All over Kashmir protests and shutdowns have been organized to condemn the terrorist attack and to express grief for the victims of the tragedy. Candles were lit at several places to honor the memory of the innocent people who had been killed so suddenly and in such a cruel way. At Makka Market the Union President said, “There is mourning in the whole of Kashmir. Our guests have been killed.”  Another protester in Kashmir said, “Imagine the trauma of a child whose father was killed in front of him.” He said what distressed him most was that the attackers used the name of religion and Kashmir in the attack.

There is some evidence that this terrorist attack has a wider aim of not just disrupting peace and tourism (a leading source of livelihood here), but in addition disrupting inter-faith harmony in India. Just a few days before the attack, on April 16 the Pakistan army chief Gen Asim Munir had gone out of his way to make highly controversial and inflammatory remarks on big dividing lines between Hindus and Muslims and their alleged inability to live together in harmony.

Hence this is a particularly important time in India to protect inter-faith harmony, and all those Muslim residents of Pahalgam who rushed to the rescue of threatened Hindu tourists, in at least one case the rescuer even sacrificing his own life for the cause, have shown the way forward for maintaining inter-faith harmony. The people of Kashmir have also come out in large numbers to voice their strong opposition against violence in the name of religion. By rejecting those who are trying to provoke violence and disharmony, and by strengthening inter-faith harmony and peace, people of the entire country can give a befitting reply to those enemies of humanity who are trying to provoke disharmony and violence.

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The writer is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include When the Two Streams Met, Protecting Earth for Children, A Day in 2071, and Man over Machine—The Path to Peace