Is Islamic State In Jammu And Kashmir, by Vikram Sood*
Thursday, July 30th, 2015
It does not take long or very much for peace to be disturbed in Jammu
and Kashmir. Till mid-summer, the feeling was one of peace with tourism in full
swing, hotels fully booked and flights packed with tourists. Suddenly it began
to change. In June, ISIS and Pakistani flags made an appearance once again. The
last time when ISIS flags appeared in Srinagar was in June last year.
Recent incidents following the burning of the ISIS flag by Vishwa Hindu
Parishad and Bajrang Dal activists in Rajouri are a case in point. The Rajouri
incident has led to a chain of protests by Muslim youth and events that have
threatened to get out of control.
The Army has been called out to carry out flag marches. Angered youth
were protesting against the burning of the ISIS flag saying they were offended
because the flag has the Kalimah Tayyiba (or the Shahada) scribed on the flag.
Their contention was that this flag was made out of ordinary paper with the
inscription done with a chalk. This was enough cause for tension and the
burning of the flag on Eid was further aggravation.
The demand in Rajouri is that the matter be investigated and the accused
apprehended by Monday, otherwise there will be a bandh in the entire district.
In anticipation, youth have been assembling and raising road blocks by burning
tyres. The VHP has asserted that there was no intention to hurt Muslim
sentiments.
Pakistani flags along with those of Lashkar-e Tayyaba and ISIS had
appeared in different parts of the Kashmir valley earlier this month after Eid
prayers. This phenomenon by itself is not new and many take it in their stride.
However, the ISIS phenomenon is relatively new. Kashmiri youth had unfurled the
ISIS flag even last year, but what makes it more ominous is the beliefs of
ISIS, its leadership, its rapid successes and its tactics.
ISIS can be traced back to its original form in 2002 when the Jordanian
ex-Al Qaeda associate, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi had formed his group Tawhid
wal-jihad. Later it transformed into the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or
Daesh, (aka Dawah al-Islamiyah fi I ‘il Iraq was sa-Shams) led by the mercurial
Abu Bakr el-Baghdadi who dramatically announced the formation of the Caliphate
of the Islamic State in the summer of 2014.
This marked a break with Al Qaeda too. The ISIS hold is marked by
unimaginable brutalities towards non-believers and other Muslims seen to have
wavered from the puritanical interpretations and of the ISIS ideologues. The
ISIS has been responsible for extreme violence throughout the month of Ramzan.
ISIS now holds territory, holds oil wells and their revenue and considerable
weaponry snatched from Iraqi and Syrian armies. It was reported to have
received assistance from the Saudi Arabians and the Emirates and Qatar.
The ISIS now constitutes a grave threat not only to its neighbourhood
but also beyond as far as Algeria in the West, into Africa up to Nigeria and up
to Afghanistan and Pakistan. The ISIS is fast becoming the major and immediate
threat to those it considers its opponents. Such organisations like the ISIS
operating outside their own territories need local support.
It is believed that ISIS may have local support in southern Afghanistan
and in Balochistan. The Baloch, however, allege that groups have been sent by
the Pakistani state to counter rising nationalist sentiment. The US now
believes that Pakistani assistance would again be required to tackle ISIS in
Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Pakistan, with its innumerable terrorist organisations, some of them now
working on their own, would provide enough fertile ground for organisations
like ISIS to thrive within and spread outwards from here. It must be remembered
that Al Qaeda leadership is still based in the FATA of Pakistan from where it
continues to give directions.
The ISIS flag has the same banner as the flag of Boko Haram, and the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – Shahada or Kalimah Tayyiba. This has alarming
implications. Any inadvertent taking down of the flag would be deemed as an
affront. The display of the ISIS flag in Srinagar in the past would be a cause
for some concern in the Indian security establishment.
At one end, it may be seen as an attempt to seek attention by a group of
angry and disgruntled youth but no security establishment will assume that to
be the final truth. There may never be any direct evidence of ISIS involvement
but sympathy to the cause, a desire to express anger against New Delhi and the
tendency of Pakistan to fish in troubled waters will always be factors. The
goals seeking vague solutions or demands like sovereignty or independence, can
easily be mixed with demands for a caliphate as the Kashmiri youth tends
towards radical beliefs.
Many Kashmiris, however, point out that Kashmir and Jammu have been
witness to atrocities of the ISIS kind in the past. It all started in the
winter of 1989 with gruesome killings of the Hindus in the Kashmir Valley,
including brutalities like the Lalru bus murders, and the acts of Bitta Karate,
Noor Khan, Mushtaq Lutrum, and Yasin Malik still remembered with horror. Hizbul
Mujahedeen terrorists pumped scores of bullets into Lassa Koul of Doordarshan
and left him to die on the streets of Srinagar. Mohammed Shaban Vakil had to
pay with his life for his views.
ISIS flags and slogans may be useful to attract attention but they are
not good news for those very people who want to use these slogans. Kashmiris
need to see what has been happening to the Syrians, Yezidis, Kurds, and Shias
because they follow a different Islam. The ISIS may not have arrived but
possibly the thought has begun to flicker. The security agencies would be
concerned.
The writer is an Advisor to Observer Research
Foundation, Delhi and a former Secretary of R & AW, Government of India
Courtesy: www.mid-day.com, July 28, 2015
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