Inside Story of Jihad in Kashmir-By Ex IPS Ram Ohri
Based on an extract from my forthcoming book
‘Global War Against Kaffir’
-Author, Ram Kumar Ohri, IPS (Retd)
The Kashmir Valley continues to be a major zone of religion-based faultline conflicts in India. There have been frequent displays of ISIS flags and jihadi symbols along with pro-Pakistani activity by militant groups in the Kashmir valley, especially in Srinagar and many other towns, after Friday prayers. The State has a wide array of fifth columnists and bristles with battalions of fellow travelers.
Burhan Wani was, by far one of the most wanted jihadi operating in the Kashmir Valley. He acquired a larger than life image by gathering a group of nearly fifty Muslim youth, many of whom were proficient in using social media and weapon-use, for propagating a new wave of militancy. Along with his band of hand picked terrorists Burhan used to post on Internet, pictures of themselves in combat fatigues and armed with automatic weapons, thereby promoting defiance of law among youngsters. On one occasion he was seen holding the black flag of ISIS, though his allegiance to the dreaded outfit was never established. But he did manage to start a new trend of villagers coming out in support of terrorists locked in gun battles with security forces which made the latter’s task more difficult
On 8 July, 2016, there was a fierce encounter in the wilds of Kokarnag between a detachment of 19 Rashtriya Rifles (Sikh Light Infantry) and the notorious terrorist hiding in a house. The encounter lasted for nearly 2 hours and around 7.30 p.m. Burhan was killed. Along with two other armed militants he had been hiding in a house which was surrounded by the army. When he came out of his hideout in a desparate bid to escape, he was gunned down by the brave soldiers of Sikh Light Infantry.
Tactical Blunder of State Government
By allowing a public burial of Burhan Wani, a monumental tactical mistake was committed by the State Government. The funeral of the slain jihadist was attended by nearly thirty thousand mourners who set the valley literally on fire after returning from Burhan’s Namaz-e-Janaza. After his burial, a wave of gross violence and stone pelting at the police and the army, broke out in Kashmir valleyin which 65 civillians and one policeman were killed. There were well-planned attacks on several Police Stations and security posts, including army bunkers. The families of policemen are being openly threatened and their houses targeted.
According to unconfirmed reports nearly 70 rifles and A-47s were looted by the jihadists. The number of injured was more than three thousand people. Among them nearly 1600 were civilians who received injuries caused by the pellet guns used by the security forces. Unfortunately many civilians received eye injuries, too. At the same time, more than 4,000 security personnel were injured due to stone pelting by violent mobs. For nearly two weeks there was a forced lock down in the Valley due to the call for ‘bandh’ given by the leaders of the Hurriyat and other secessionist outfits.
Targeting policemen and security forces by relentless stone pelting has been the favourite weapon of jihadi mobsters. The stone-pelters are paid by pro-Pakistani fifth-columnists for attacking and provoking the security forces. The strategy used by the militants is to keep stone-pelting tender-aged children in front of mobs. There are rumours that young children are being trained in madrasas and mosques to target the security forces and provoke them by hurling filthy abuses at them – even try to urinate at the members of police forces in order to provoke them to use force. The whole drill of harassing and provoking the police personnel is a well organized jihadi campaign.
Kashmir has a long history of militancy and violence. A Pakistan propelled jihad raged in the Valley in 1989 and 1990 which led to the ethnic cleansing of Hindus. More than four lakh Kashmiri Pandits were forced to migrate out of their ancient homeland and to date they have not been able to go back despite phoney assurances given by the State government as well as the central government. Many myopic and inadequately read politicians and the media commentators keep blaming the unrest in Kashmir on lack of employment opportunities and poor economic development, etc. They endlessly advocate the grant of more autonomy and press for adoption of the peace-at-any-cost theory while traitors run riot.
Dope of Pacifist Dogma
India has a surfeit of pacifism-doped politicians and journalists. The biggest surprise was the singing of the bogus song of more autonomy by P. Chidambram, the former Home Minister of India, who ought to have known better. But Chidambram is not the only political heavy-weight recommending molly coddling of violent jihadis. He is in the good company of several top leaders of CPI (M), Samajwadi Party, Muslim League, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), et al.
And to the chagrin of the beleaguered and battle-scarred security forces there are battalions of leftover leftists pleading for appeasing the weapon-wielding killers like Burhan Wani. No wonder, our vision-bereft forefathers remained slaves of invaders for more than one thousand years. They too must have been afflicted by the virus called political correctness aka self-deception ! In Islam it is called taqqaiya, i.e., deception to hoodwink kaffirs.
Murky Role of Madarsas and Wahabi Preachers
It is not known how many of the Wahabi preachers out of the 25,000 Maulanas who visited India in 2013 (mostly from West Asian countries) had travelled to Kashmir valley to preach to the youth studying in madrasas. According to a reliable source, some of them did manage to go to Kashmir. It needs to be ascertained whether they did preach Wahabi Islam in a bid to radicalize the youth studying in madrasas. Their role needs to be scrutinized and lessons learnt – at least for future.
The political busy bodies and most analysts have failed to realize that the Islamic doctrine of jihad is the root cause of repetitive violence which sears the overwhelmingly Muslim-populated valley. What India is facing in Kashmir is not a campaign for ‘azadi’. Nor can it be categorised as a clamour for more autonomy. The real problem is the monster called jihad – launched for total Islamization of Kashmir. Unfortunately even after the violent ethnic cleansing of Hindus in 1990 by armed mobsters the Indian strategist could not diagnose the Kashmir problem. As long as the global jihad remains in fast forward mode, Kashmir valley will continue to erupt in violence and mayhem. The phenomenon called global jihad and the ongoing violence in Kashmir are intertwined.
Foreigners Fighting in Kashmir
The old Defense Ministry files reveal that between 1996 and 2001, nearly 626 foreign militants were killed in Kashmir while battling the Indian security forces.4 Some of them came from distant lands like Sudan, Libya and Egypt. The overwhelming majority, however, came from Pakistan and Afghanistan.5 The appeaser politicians should explain why would militants from distant countries like Sudan and Libya come to India for seeking redressal of the grievances of Kashmiris? Our self-styled intellectual refuse to understand the implications of jihad even after seeing how on 1st July, 2016, innocent kaffirs were butchered in Dhaka because they could not recite ‘Kalima’ and verses from the Quran. All those who plead for granting more autonomy to the State are barking up the wrong tree. Financially every Kashmiri Muslim is better off than his counterpart in other States of India. He is better placed than the Hindus and Buddhists of Jammu and Ladakh regions, too. Then what is the all fuss about, why Kashmir valley burns ? It is time that the Indian government and our inadequately-read secularized politicians and analysts understood what lies at the root of the Kashmir problem. Showering dollops of more autonomy and candyloads of financial grants cannot appease the diehard militants waging anti-India war in Kashmir. Can the fire of jihad be extinguished by appeasement ? No, never, ever. With the fast-paced globalization of jihad, it is no longer possible to win the support of the jihad-obsessed Muslims of Kashmir. This is the sum and substance of the Kashmir conundrum. For dealing with it the Indian strategists will have to opt for all those measures which a nation must adopt to defeat the monster of jihad.
Copyright @ Ram Kumar Ohri
Written By Shri Ram Ohri, Ex IPS.
