Jha, a distinguished intellectual, admits that it is the fear of a BJP-ruled India and intense distrust of their own leaders which has finally coalesced into the merger of radical separatism and Salafi Islam that Kashmir’s Shias and the older generation of Kashmiri Sunnis have been dreading for the last decade.
While Pakistan and India are now trying to reinvent the wheel by bringing in the back channel on Kashmir once again even though the process was completed by General (R) Pervez Musharraf. Ershad Mehmud of Centr for Peace, Development and Reform (CPDR), tells The News, “The Pakistan government approach towards Kashmir conflict has stuck in 1990’s. The gains which were made during the peace process during 2003-2007 have been buried in the dustbin of the history. Now, Pakistan has almost reverted back to its traditional Kashmir policy which led India and Pakistan to dead end and once again we headed towards the same end. Indians see Pakistan’s policy as “renewed animosity and re-awakened ambitions in Kashmir.”
No one wants a new generation militancy to start.
Will this “Salafi uprising”, see in the greater interest of Kashmir, saner minds in the valley unite on a command agenda?“It is a difficult question to answer. After all, after taking care of their ‘interests’ as the former RAW chief exposes in his book, it has been embarrassing for Pakistan in the past, to see even on festive occasions at its Delhi High Commission, Syed Ali Shah Gillani sitting in a separate room from other leaders like Mirwaiz, Shabir Shah and Yasin Malik,” comments a diplomat.
There may be hope yet as one report comments, “All (moderate Kashmiri leaders) of them have condemned violence and publicly denounced IS ideology as being anti-Islam and against Kashmiri struggle.”
Notes Prem Jhankar Jha in Greater Kashmir, “To this volatile mix we must add Pakistan’s renewed animosity and re-awakened ambitions in Kashmir. If Salafi violence envelops Kashmir, it will not be easy to prevent it from dragging India and Pakistan into a war with each other. The need for the two countries to recognise this danger and resume the search for peace has never, therefore, been greater. Modi and Nawaz Sharif’s decision to reopen and institutionalise consultations has not therefore come a day too soon.”
He narrates a PDP grassroots worker from South Kashmir who cautions that today’s Kashmir youth have never known peace.“They have also not known the Pandits. They know very little about Kashmiri syncretism. For them Kashmir is a Muslim country and, increasingly, the only Islam they respect is Salafi Islam. They see Salafis winning battle after battle, gaining territory, pushing back the West, in Iraq and Syria,” adds the worker.
Jha also points to new realities of this new generation who see that Salafi mosques in Kashmir are far richer, their imams far more politically aware, their books far more current. “By contrast the Sufi ziyarats are poor, the imams know little about world affairs and there is nothing to read. So more and more of young people are praying at the Salafi mosques,” he notes.
While both Pakistan and India have not shied away from discussing terrorism, are they ready to look into their backyards to see this new Salafi trend emerging which will have devastating affect in the region?