CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Rajiv - Farooq Accord

The Indira-Sheikh Accord proved disastrous for Kashmir. That the Plebiscite Front was virtually wound up might have afforded India political mileage at international fora. But, in reality, Kashmir slipped into the hands of Plebiscite Fronters, who captured the state power only to turn it into a hand-maid of internal subversion, sabotage and Islamisation pogrom. The pro-Pak forces were rehabilitated and allowed to sneak into key positions. The Private Secretary to Mirza Afzal Beg was an Al-Fateh man involved in loot, murder and arson. The police forces were allowed to be infected by the infiltration of Al-Fateh saboteurs. Communalisatian of the state apparatus at each level was the handiwork of the highly motivated, regimented and biased elements. Mrs Indira Gandhi doubted the very efficacy of the Accord she had entered into with Sheikh Abdullah and that was why she accused Mir Qasim of providing a shield to the malevolent Sheikh.

Farooq Abdullah and Rajiv Gandhi

Rajiv Gandhi as the Prime Minister of India failed to learn from the experiences of his mother and objective situation prevailing in Kashmir. He rehabilitated Farooq Abdullah, who was reported to be in thick contacts with forces inimical to India operating for its balkanisation. Statements of the prominent members of Parliament categorizing him as a 'security risk' were completely ignored. That Farooq Abdullah connived at and objectively collaborated with anti-India forces was much on cards and had earned media focus. There were ample indications and reports about his dubious role, which could not be so easily ignored and by-passed. The Governor of the state present on scene continued to inform the Prime Minister of the deteriorating security situation in Kashmir. If it was a massive slippage, Farooq Abdullah contributed to it wilfully not taking time by forelock doling out the impression that the state authority had disappeared. He could be held guilty of not only of non-governance 2, but of overt and covert collaboration. And Rajiv Gandhi was practically duped by the glib tongue of a secessionist.

Farooq Abdullah again took over the reins of government n November, 1987. He had already proved himself incapable of running the government. He had virtually no hold on the state apparatus. He was incompetent and inefficient and more than most given to flirtations with actresses.3 But he continued to play the role of a collaborationist. That he would improve his own performance and set the stale machine in proper gear was never on his priority list. Instead, he released twenty-three hard-core terrorists only to see Kashmir leading to the brink of disaster. The trite argument was to allow them breathing space to join main-stream politics. The trained terrorists went on destroying peace in Kashmir, resorting to loot, murder and arson, creating conditions for snapping the ties of Kashmir with India.

Farooq Abdullah deliberately ignored the sinister activities and violence of the anti-India forces, which at the very first look appeared working at the behest of a neighbouring country. There was no check imposed on the Muslim youth crossing over to the camps set up in POK. Any action proposed to check the outflow was stifled allowing things to happen. That the Muslim youth going in buses operating from Lal Chowk in Srinagar to Bandipora in district Baramulla and conductors crying hoarse that they were on way to POK were not stopped by law-enforcing agencies and bus owners neither arrested nor punished. Were the borders so porous that the Muslim youth faced no difficulty in crossing over '' Was there a nexus between Farooq Abdullah and armed forces ? He is on record to have directed his party workers to cross over to the other side of the borders for arms training,4 thus wilfully contributing to the pace of on-going insurgency and chaos. The central leaders aware of the emerging lethal situation ignored it posing as models of inertia and non-governance. If Farooq Abdullah had abdicated from the obligation of protecting and safeguarding the integrity of the state, where was the Central Government vested with the responsibility of the protection of the country as a whole against internal sabotage and external machinations ?

Blasts, arson and all manner of sabotage corroding public order were ever on an increase. The National Conference abandoned its vanguard role and chose the back seat. It was all deliberate and in conformity with the plan-formulations. The spurt in violence and terrorism was not countered by a well-devised strategy of vigorous action leading to the stealing of wind out of the sails of terrorists. Farooq Abdullah resorted to loud but hollow speeches threatening to meet the insurgency with a heavy hand. But nothing concrete was done. Farooq Abdullah had a design but Rajiv Gandhi as the Prime Minister of the country ignored the danger signals leading to the enveloping of Kashmir by terrorism, loot and mayhem,5 threatening the very integrity of India as a sovereign, secular and democratic republic.

Farooq Abdullah as the helmsman of the state heard the ringing of the alarm bells, but relished it as if it had been sonorous music in a jazz club. He knew all. His ministers were directly involved in militancy. Their sons and close relations had a firm tie-up with the insurgents, who were trained in arms in camps across the border. There were express instructions not to put down the insurgency with a heavy hand. The police might have acted, but the instructions provided an alibi not to act. Instead hard-core terrorists were released only to lend a new face-lift to the insurgency gaining roots in mass psyche. The Inspector General Police (CID) was categoric in informing the Chief Minister of the role-conduct of his Cabinet Ministers abetting insurgency and shielding the insurgents.6 Farooq Abdullah said to be acting under a design did not consider it feasible to undertake measures designed to deal a heavy blow to insurgents. The terrorists were allowed a long rope, provided a shield, neither detained nor arrested. They obviously throve under the state patronage.

Farooq Abdullah from the very inception of insurgency in Kashmir had been harping on the tune of unemployment prevalent in the Muslim youth. That phenomenon as per him drove them to the wall and in extreme desperation and frustration they crossed over the borders to POK for arms training. If that was the main irritant and frustrating cause, they could have launched a constitutional movement for the redressal of the grouse. There are millions of unemployed educated youth in the country. At local level, there were thousands of the Kashmirian Hindus without jobs. There were sikh youth pining for gainful employment. There were bright chances, of course, with the patronage and support of the politicians, for the eslablishment of a broad-based democratic front out to launch a struggle for opening up of avenues of employment for young men and women of all hues. But, it was only a ruse. Facts spoke otherwise. Farooq Abdullah was drafting Muslim boys for insurgency only to export them to POK for arms training. He was reported to have sent the first batch af such boys in 1984. 7 It was again followed by the despatch of other groups. Look to his confession. 'I directed my party-men to lie low, go across the border, get training in arms handling, do anything but do not get caught by Jagmohan.'8

The indoctrinated Muslim boys as wilful partners in the game of insurgency planned and conceived by the enemies of India took to arms under the frenzy of waging jehad (holy war) against the Hindu India. They developed the hue of fundamentalism by suffering regimentation of the worst type in mosques and Madarasas (schools) run by Jamaat-i-Islami. Out to destroy the texture of pluralistic and sane society, the Muslim youth acted as collaborators and executors of the entire game-plan for snapping the ties of Kashmir with India. As per the available data, the young Muslim boys, who have taken to insurgency and terrorism, hail from prosperous and affluent homes. None of them was on the brink of starvation. Per capita income in Kashmir is an index of high levels of prosperity. Trade, commerce, agriculture, horticulture, transport, tourism and more than most services are entirely in the hands of Muslims.

Puts the author of the Facts Speak, "The plea that the present turmoil in Kashmir is the consequence of unemployment, poverty or backwardness and paucily of funds to promote development activity is a wanton disinformation unleashed by the interested circles at the state and central level."9

Motivated by sectarianism, Farooq Abdullah highlighted the problem of unemployment prevalent in the Muslims alone. There were young men and women of other ethnic groups as well, really groaning under poverty and backwardness. They were equally frustrated and desperate. They did not take to arms and killings. In fact, other ethnic groups have been battling for their rights and also against the onslaught of Muslims on them by taking recourse to constitutional guarantees, which have been sustaining them all through the post-1947 period of absolute Muslim domination and oppression.

Farooq Abdullah as the Chief Minister of the state lent his full support to the systematic unfoldment of the fundamentalist agenda in Kashmir. Liquor shops mostly owned by the Kashmirian Hindus were under the fundamentalist onslaught. Most of the shops had been raided in Srinagar and Anantnag. What the Chief Minister did in his capacity as the chairman of the Amar Singh Club, Srinagar was to get the sale and consumption of liquor in the Club stopped. Such an act lent full credence and support to the anti-liquor tirade launched by the fundamentalists. Prof. M.L. Raina, a reputed educationist of Jammu and Kashmir as a member of the Club, opposed the move tooth and nail exposing the loyalties of the Chief Minister to the terrorists,l0 operating for a fundamentalist agenda and ethnic cleansing.

The temples and shrines had been uncler a severe onslaught of the Muslim bigots. Their presence was an eye-sore to them and for one reason or the other were desecrated and demolished. The processes of temple destruction owing their inception to the beginnings of Muslim rule in Kashmir continued to-date without any letup. Even the Mahants and pujaris of temples and shrines were not spared. The Mahant of Vicharnag Shrine, Pandit Keshav Nath, was brutally murdered on 9th December, 1988. The fault of the Mahant was that he looked after the up-keep of the shrine of an ancient origin and offered worship to the presiding deity of the shrine. And Keshav Nath was killed by a Muslim constable, Mohammed Yusuf, posted at the shrine to mount guard on it lest it should suffer desecration and demolition at the hands of vandals.

The Mahant lived in a room of the Dharmsala and it was in the wee hours of the morning that the constable knocked at the door of the Mahant. The Mahant waking up opened the door and the constable pounced on him, dragged him out, in Islamic fashion, tore off his sacred thread and yelled and said that he should read Kalima and get converted to Islam. The policeman proved a typical proselytizer, first commanding him to read Kalima and if orders were flouted, then 'possession of his body was halal.' The Mahant did not oblige the Muslim bigot and killer. The Chowkidar of the shrine begged of the killer to spare him. But nothing could deter him and he persisted in his yellings to convert him to Islam. The constable kicked and beat the Mahant and ultimately struck him with the butt of his gun killing him on the spot.

The incident sent shock waves through the fragile minority of the Hindus. They were highly disturbed and upset, insecurity looming large over them. The police forces as a guarantee to peace and security of their life and property had slipped off into the lap of Muslim fundamentalism working out its designs against the 'infidels'. There was a sharp reaction on the part of the Kashmirian Hindus, who rallied on the issue and demanded of the powers that be that the police forces needed an immediate weeding and cleansing. But that proved a cry in the wilderness.

Farooq Abdullah made a statement in the State Assembly, 'It was a matters of shame that the policeman performing the duty of protecting somebody should commit the heinous act of murdering the very same person .... During the course of further proceedings, it was learnt through chowkidar of the said temple namely Beant Ram, that the constable Mohammad Yusuf No 616 who was on guard duty at the said temple, had pressed the said pajari to recite the Quran and when he refused to do so, constable Mohammad Yusuf assaulted him with the rifle in his possession and beat him to death. Post-mortem report received in this case reveals that the cause of death is due to multiple cerebral concussions and internal hamorrhage.' 12

The Al Fateh criminals had already infected tne police force of communal virus. Mohammad Yusuf's act of killing a Mahant of a Hindu shrine was reflective of a deep malaise that had struck the entire state apparatus from the lower rungs to the highest echelons of power. Veerana Aivalli IPS, the DIG of Police, Kashmir Range, was candid enough to admit the presence and infiltration of Al-Fateh men in police force (and legislative bodies) and attributed the spurt in insurgency to such men as had risen to be the police officers (and even legislators.) He was categoric in naming Mr. Abdul Rashid Dar, MLA from the constituency of Shangus, owing allegiance to Al-Fateh organization l3 squarely responsible for and charged with many an act of sabotage in the Valley of Kashmir.

With Farooq Abdullah as its chairman, the Muslim Auqaf rose to a zenith of power wielding tremendous influence over the entire state apparatus. Its avowed objectives were not only to protect the Muslim interests at every step, but more than most aid and accelerate the processes of proselytisation. The Muslim Auqaf is in ownership of landed and structural properties worth crores of rupees. It can lay its hands on any piece of land belonging to government or to a Hindu individual or to a Hindu temple or shrine. There have been instances galore establishing the forcible occupation of the government lands or temple lands by the Muslim Auqaf. The Islamised bureaucracy serving the ends of grand plan aids all the processes of illegal occupation by tampering or erasing or fraudulently manipulating the records. The irony is that the land belonging to the Saligram Temple in Pahalgam was straightaway transferred to the Muslim Auqaf under a government fiat No: 702, dated 31st December, 1981 [l4] The revenue records were clandestinely tampered with by the Islamised revenue aierarchy. Such transfers though illegal and fraudulent took place without the knowledge of the Hindus. Records and documents were produced to counter the claims but the Islamised revenue hierarchy discounted their claims on the basis of frauds committed and tamperings made.

The bigoted Muslims of all hues from different parts of the country paid regular visits to and had been in direct contact with their likes in the Valley of Kashmir. What was beyond the orbit and scope of their achievement in their own states became a perceptible reality in Kashmir as a result of their persistent proddings and preachings. Allah Walle as an organization upholding bigotry and sectarianism as their basic agenda, had established firms roots at grass-root level. The vicious preachers clad in white connected with the organization enjoyed patronage of men in corridors of power. Their main objective was to prepare the Muslirns for jehad (holy war) against the Hindus and establish a Muslim state based on a parochial thought model. They had virtually captured all mosques in the Valley and were working at the behest of the forces master-minding the whole plan of insurgency and terrorism in Kashmir. They were responsible for whipping up religious frenzy designed to cause a hiatus in the Muslim psyche, thus breaking it loose from any strings binding it with the aeons-old Kashmirian ethos of tolerance, non-violence and mutual good-will.

That they had a political role became visibly express only when they in mosques condemned India for forcibly occupying Kashmir. They were loud in their tones to talk ill of the Hindus given to idolatry. In their exhortations, they urged the Muslims to launch a crusade wltn the utmost ferocity for breaking loose from the Indian hegemony to establish an Islamic state.

The Allah Walle made a debut on the religio-political scene of Kashmir by holding a seven day convention in downtown. It was a real grand show, each detail of the arrangements worked out to a finesse. It was a government sponsored convention. Farooq Abdullah and his Law Minister flaunting a long beard showed up at the convention to boost up the morale of the campaign managers, who were assigned the task of spreading out the support-base for launching jehad to weed out infidelity and anti-Islamic forces. The entire Muslim bureaucracy was present at the convention, thus lending it vigour and sanctity. The congregation behaved and acted parochialy, thought and mused in obscurantist phraseology and raised issues of fundamentalist complexion, offering irrelevant cliches as the solutions. By lending his patronage to such parochial and fundamentalist congregations, Farooq Abdullah having parted his ways with secular and pluralist agenda of the National Conference was signalling the emergence of forces determined to turn turtle the applecart of India in Kashmir. The Allah Walle convention as spearheaded by the vested interests openly flaunted fanaticism, bigotry, moribund and reactionary ideology- all presented under the facade of religious theme.

" 'Allah Walle' another Muslim organization in India also directly helped in whipping up religious frenzy. They held huge congregations in Kashmir where they openly spoke to Kashmiri people exhorting them to strive hard for the Islamic rule and Islamic Law. Many young Kashmiris were taken to U.P. for training. In August-September 1988, a week long conference-cum-camp in which delegates from many states of India and a few Arabs participated was held at Eid-Gah, Srinagar. Many high ranking government officials attended the said conference,"15 puts the author of Genocide of Hindus in Kashmir.

Another front for the mobilization of Muslims was opened by Farooq Abdullah cautiously and warily working out his design for secession. The Front worked under a deceptive nomenclature of 'Samaj Sudhar Society'. It was invested with the same ideology of jehad, Muslim redemption from 'slavery' and establishment of an Islamic state. But the front externally apparelled itself with social reform to fight the evils that had crept and seeped into the social fabric of Muslims. The Front worked with the government funds and had its office in the Municipal Building, Srinagar. Dr. G.Q. Allaqaband, now the principal of the Medical College, Srinagar, was spearheading the awareness movement ostensibly for social reform. He had full and unstinted support from the Islamised bureaucracy and other bigoted elements owing complete allegiance to Jamaat-i-Islami. Most of the Muslim lecturers and teachers upholding parochial and obscurantist agenda were closely connected with the Front. The Divisional Commissioner of Kashmir, Shafi Pandit, and other vital cogs in the government machinery invested the Front with their patronage and direction. Only to strengthen the roots of the Front, Farooq Abdullah, the Chief Minister of J&K State, donated a sum of Rs. one lakh from the public exchequer to the innocous looking organization. Declaration in this behalf was made from the pulpit of Hazratbal shrine, Srinagar only to end religious sanctity and legitimacy to the organization pursuing anti-lndia campaign.

Farooq Abdullah was determined to dig out the roots of India in Kashmir. He appeared to have nefarious designs up his sleeves, irrigating the fields of secession, separatism and fundamentalism. 'Samaj Sudhar Society' was in essence anti-lndia and anti-Hindu, highly sectarian and biased. If social evils were to be fought, it could have been campaigned from a common front formed by all segments of the Kashmirian population. How was it that the Muslims alone were conceived to have developed social evils, which needed be fought with government funds. The essence of the intent was that the Front would have been exposed to the last tatters had it been thrown open to all social segments irrespective of faith and religion. The Hindus smelt a rat in the organization and as a matter of design were kept at a distance. Mobilization of the Muslims alone was the main objective and religion was the only device and plank for the achievement of the objective.

To cap it all, the state apparatus was pressed into service to meet the ends of Muslim cause. The State Information Department was misused to highlight the activities of the Front by the issuance of press notes. An organization for carrying out reforms in the Muslim society, a society motivated by sectarian ends, a non-governmental organization was given donations from government coffers and its activities pursuing the ends inimical to the broader interests cf the state were highlighted by the Information Department run by the government. This was how the state power was made use of only to meet the sectarian and communal ends. The Kashmirian Hindus also had the malaise of social evils, which could prove baneful for their wholesome and healthy growth. They too had social reform organizations and Farooq Abdullah was far from showing any interest in them, not to talk of granting moneys to such organizations. Be it said, Farooq Abdullah was out to destroy the secular polity of Kashmir by feeding and throwing up communal and sectarian organizations with anti-India agenda based on hate-campaign.

Another outfit Dukhtaran-i-Milat- Daughters of the Muslim Community, a front organization of the Jamaat-i-lslami, apparently working for upliftment of the Muslim women, was deeply pledged to the cause of injecting the communal virus into the Muslim fabric, thus playing a complementary role to the 'Samaj Sudhar Society' floated by Farooq Abdullah. In reality, on ground, a close nexus was forged between the twin outfits by the powers that be only to add, stridency and vigour to hate-lndia campaign. The agenda upheld by the Dukhtaran-i-Milat was the dissemination and perpetuation of antediluvian attitudes, Islamisation of the Kashmirian ethos and widening of the chasm between the Hindus and the Muslims - all components of a strategy for jehad. Through slow but sure processes, the outfit spreads its octopus-like tentacles in semi-literate Muslim women to re-orient them in Islamic ways for upholding processes of Islamisation put on the plank of sheer communalism. As per the survey of the outfit, these women running into thousands had sneaked into the massive network of schools established by the government and were of prime importance in matters of poisoning the budding girls put under their charge to meet the ends of jehad.

The cadre of the outfit enjoyed patronage from the Islamised bureaucracy. Each school for girls was converted into a mosque for sermons and jehad resulting in the demise of content and message of liberal education for establishing a reason-oriented sane society. With the branches of the outfit littered over the affluent towns of the Valley, it spared no effort to hurl the Muslim women into a ghetto mentality obliging them to snap their ties with the Hindu women, who served as models for them to emulate. It played a tremendous role to keep the cauldron of inter-communal hatred and distrust simmering. The women officers connected with the outfit collected funds for it and proved a scourge for the Hindu ladies serving under them.

The bigotry of the outfit got etched on the public mind when it pursued the agenda of converting the Hindu and Sikh girls to Islam. The chief of the outfit, Aisha Indrabi, now in gaol, has been charged with the forcible conversion of the Hindu and Sikh girls, who were drafted for terrorist activities at gun-point.

To meet the ends of insurgency and terrorism, the outfit is said to have netted and exported not fewer than 800 Muslim girls to the camps set up in POK for training in arms and ammunition under Afghan, Pakistani, Libyan and Iranian desperadoes.

Committed to the destruction of Kashmir and its heritage, the outfit has been in receipt of money from almost all Islamic countries feeding fundamentalism in countries harbouring pluralist politics. Operating for religious agitprop the outfit having incurred support and patronage from the highly biased and regimented Muslim clerics is down-right parochial and fanatic working for Islamisation pogrom with its prominent thrust against the Hindu minority of Kashmir.

When Pakistan in complicity with the Muslim rabids opened its proxy war against India in the theatre of Kashmir, the women cadre of the Dukhtaran-i-Milat were in front ranks of all types of subversive and terrorist acts. Donning shrouds (Kafan), they led many anti-India demonstrations. Dressed in veils, they served as conduits for subversion and carriers for weapons. The unscrupulous terrorists more wedded to lechery than 'Azadi' have proved barbarous in violating their innocence and that is how they have been seen thronging the hospitals in Ramban, Udhampur, Jammu and Delhi for abortions.

The outfit, in essense, communal and moribund, despite some sporadic raids on its headquarters grew and thrived under Ihe protective shield of Muslims in corridors of power. No serious efforts were invested to stamp it out for saving the humanistic value-structure of Kashmir from decimation. The tie-up between the twin outfits of Samaj Sudhar and Dukhtaran-i-Milat harnessed and generated the destructive forces for indoctrination of Muslims of either sex for jehad and liquidation of minorities.

The political radar screen of Kashmir recording sufficient signals of brewing insurgency and terrorism did not fail to record the sudden founding of the Jehlum Valley Medical College in Srinagar where the Muslim rich sought admission for their wards for M.B.B.S programme on payment of fabulous donations. The coterie responsible for the founding of the college basked in the sun of Farooq Abdullah's lavish patronage. Dr. Abdul Ahad Guru, now slain by the terrorists, as the fulcrum of the entire plan, roped in Dr. Mehraj-ud-din, professor of Medicine, Govt. Medical College, Srinagar; Mustafa Kamal, Farooq Adbullah's brother and Minister in his cabinet; Mufti Mehraj, Additional Advocate General J&K Government and Prof. G. M. Sheikh, a notorious ISI (Inter State Intelligence of Pakistan) agent and saboteur.

The Medical College just started in absence of infrastructure (staff, facilities and other requirements) was only a facade to serve as a conduit for fabulous sums pouring in from the Muslim countries openly feeding insurgency in Kashmir. Dr. Abdul Ahad Guru, a saboteur, would be on foreign jaunts to Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries to mobilize donations apparently for the Medical College. But, with the advent of terrorism, the huge funds of the college were diverted to the terrorist outfits operating for jehad against India and the Hindu minorities. Mufti Mehraj and Prof. G.M. Sheikh, now in Tihar jail, have been charged with subversion and feeding of terrorism in Kashmir following the dictates of ISI mentors or fruition of Pak objectives in Kashmir. The two saboteurs have funnelled Medical College funds running into lakhs to rabid terrorist outfits like JKLF, Al Jehad, Ikhwan-ul-Muslimeen, et al. They are said to have built enormous properties in Delhi and Nepal with the money they have been receiving from foreign sources for intensification of jehad in Kashmir. Their bank accounts in Delhi have already been seized. That they have been serving as conduits for foreign money get established by huge sums credited to their accounts initially opened with paltry sums.

Who inducted Mufti Mehraj into the governing body of the Jehlum Valley Medical College ? Who appointed Prof. G. M. Sheikh as the administrative officer of the said college despite his being a Pak-spy ? Where from did the money come? It is generally held that there were men in corridors of power who lavished their blessings on all the projects innovated lo secure the secession of Kashmir from India. Could it be said that the Chief Mimster of the state himself was with the entire game plan from its take off to the touch down stages ?

That Farooq Abdullah was translating a design into actual praxis became perceptible when he created a volatile situation bv issuance of government orders stalling the Darbar Move to the winter capital of Jammu. The Valley was fast turning into a boiling cauldron and the terrorists had already made their debut. What was needed that the state should flex its muscles to curb the growing violence and establish its authority and competence to meet the insurgency. Ignoring the impending challenges to the security of the state, the man at the helm of affairs added more chaos to the already chaotic situation. The public opinion in Jammu got inflammed and there were massive protests and demonstrations to condemn the chauvinistic act of stalling the 'office move' to Jammu, which has been in vogue for decades. As part of a pre-meditated plan, the Bar Association of Srinagar unleashed an agitation to the end of forcing the government to implement the orders. Farooq Abdullah brought the two components of the state to a head-on clash and must have been as pleased as punch. The state was put on tenter-hooks and before the impasse could be resolved, the highly motivated elements in the Bar Association gave their agitation a communal thrust by setting ablaze the telmple properties and Hindu houses in Srinagar.

The Muslim marauders supporting the agitation set the entire shopping complex of Somyar Temple in Habbakadal, Srinagar to flames. The Hindu shopkeepers suffered enormous losses. The Hindu houses were pelted at and then burnt. A temple at Barbar Shah was completely gutted after it was set ablaze. A reign of terror was let loose against the Hindu community. Thrown out of gear, the Hindus protested, demonstrated, clamoured for security and pleaded for justice. A mammoth public meeting of the Kashmiri Pandits held in the premises of the Somyar Temple to protest against the outlaws was stoned by the Muslim rabids. Dozens of protestors including women were brutally injured. The police posse present on the scene witnessed the brutality, but failed to act. 16

All the Hindu fora forged a common front to fight the outrage. Peaceful protests were made, dharnas were held and representations were shot. Farooq Abdullah and his two Ministers, Mohammad Shafi and P. L. Handoo, met the Kashmirian Hindu delegations and made tall promises to reconstruct the entire complex. But, the whole complex is still a pile of ruins revealing the dubious role of the powers that be. As if it were not enough, a Muslim rabid, Qazi Nissar, owing allegiance to the Muslim United Front and Mufti Mohammad Sayyid, whipped up mass frenzy in the township of Anantnag to capture the Gautam Nag, a Hindu shrine, where the pilgrims on way to the Amarnath cave have a dip and then resume their journey to the holy cave. Blinded by hate and prejudice, he after the fashion of first generation Muslim learners dabbled in the domain of linguistics only to coin a new etymology for the word 'Gautam'. To him, the real name of Gautam Nag is 'Gurtam Nag' where a horse has stayed for rest. Making a mockery of himself and all he mobilized, he gave wide currency to his linguistic feat, which won him laurels at the hands of Muslim bigots.

Qazi Nissar, a Ph.D in a language, came to be seen as a pale version of Sikandar Butshikan who had pillaged and burnt the Martand Temple. He issued a clarion call to the Muslims to capture the Hindu shrine generating unprecedented communal frenzy. Supporting his vicious act, all rabids affiliated to the Jamaat-i-Islami and other political formations got rallied for an aggression on the shrine. It happened even when the Hanfia Auqaf of Anantnag was categoric in declaring that all the Muslim properties were under its possession. Unheeding it, the Gautam Nag was turned into a hot issue for unleashing an orgy of communal frenzy. The revenue records somehow not tampered with, reinforced the Hindu possession of the shrine. Days were fixed for onslaught on the shrine and then abandoned. The process continued with the sole objective of keeping the communal cauldron on non-stop simmer only to terrorise Hindus, keep them on tenter-hooks and scare them away. On every call the Muslim hordes collected in unprecedented numbers to maraud, plunder and capture the shrine. The Hindus were insulted, reviled, humiliated and warned not to thwart the Muslims from capturing tne shrine. The walls of the shrine were demolished and encroachments made. The Dharamsala was burnt and the Mahant beaten and spat at. What ensued as the worst was that the Hindu houses in Anantnag were pelted at and attempts made on their life and property.l7

Rome was burning and Farooq Abdullah was fiddling. His government had gone on a perpetual holiday allowing the bigots and law-breakers to establish law of the jungle. No attempts were made to thwart those who were disturbing and destroying communal peace and amity. A perceptible nexus was what had torged all shades of Muslim bigots into a monolith for waging war on the Kashmirian Hindus. Even the Congress leaders with occasional feeble and vague statements issued under pressure failed to stem the tidal wave of communalism and bigotry engulfing the Hindus. The communal fury directed against the Hindus and their cultural manifestations found an echo even in the state legislature. The legislators cutting across party affiliations demanded of the Hindus to establish their claim to the shrine establishing the essential hue of the house. But, stifling the frenzied voices, Molvi Iftikhar Ansari, a Congress legislator, is said to have yelled that the Muslims should also establish their claims to the Hazratbal shrine.

Farooq Abdullah's meeting with Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala was largely responsible for cementing close ties between the Kashmir and Punjab secessionists wearing religious fanaticism. A massive procession of Sikhs starting from a Gurudwara in Lal Chowk, Srinagar was joined by the Muslims and crossing the old Amira Kadal bridge it went amok to plunder, loot and desecrate the Hanuman Temple. Replicating Mahmood Ghazni, Muslims broke all the idols and threw the main idol of the temple into the Jehlum. All the Hindu shops in the vicinity of the temple were looted. The procession yelling 'Muslim Sikh Unity Zindabad' forged ahead towards Nirankari Bhawan and raided it and set it ablaze. The Hindu houses in the neighbourhood were looted, plundered and torched.

It was a novel but ominous development. The Sikhs abetting the communal agenda against the Kashmirian Hindus was shocking for them. It was within the ken of all that in pursuit of a strategy to add to the insecurity and fear-psychosis of the Hindus, a behind-the-scene understanding was forged between the Sikh and the Muslim secessionists and the procession raising slogans of communal hue with its main thrust against the minority as a support base for India in Kashmir was its manifestation. The gruesome and grisly happenings took place in Srinagar and seventeen kilometres away the holy shrine of Tullamulla, Kshirbhwani, got enveloped in a pall of gloom when all the Hindus got collected in the shrine for a religious festival buzzed off like frightened doves to their houses. Farooq Abdullah appearing on the scene had exhorted them to quit as their homes in Srinagar were set ablaze and looted.

The National Conference as an organization upholding nationalism and secularism had swerved away from the cherished ideals, which had at initial stages enthused all segments of the Kashmirian populace for a unified action for the realization of a socio-political order put on the plank of rationalism, pluralism and co-existence. The same organization over the years opted for parochialism and sectarianism under the vigorous impact of Mullahs, bigots and fanatics, who made no bones about their real intentions for subverting and communalising the entire polity of Kashmir.18

Mr. Attah Ullah Suharwardy, a minister in the Farooq Abdullah Ministry, was committed in word and deed to the Islamisation pogrom. As a man wedded to parochialism and archaic thought modes, he set the ship of National Conference government in right direction when in all candour and frankness he is said to have declared on the floor of the House that the Muslims had opted for India because it was to be Islamised while Pakistan was already a Muslim state. Mr. Suharwardy was well appreciated by all his likes in the House presided over by a leader, who did not deem it relevant to controvert the highly biased bigoted and irrelevant statement of a Minister. The House was reduced to a pulpit in the mosque where-from plans and fiats for Islamisation and proselytisation were doled out to injure the religious susceptibilities of men of other faiths.

Dr. Suharwardy in his capacity as the Minister of Education was invited to inaugurate the Science Exhibition in the State Institute of Education, Srinagar. He is said to have cast a contemptuous look at the entire prospect of exhibition calling it all a wasteful exercise. The remark of the Minister caused surprise to all. Coming out of the exhibition hall with his eye-brows knit-up, the Minister yelled at the principal of the Institute to get all into the hall where he would express his views on education. With everybody present in the hall, the Minister sermonized on the lslamic goals of education emphasizing that Caliph Usman had to be posed as a model before all. At this, a teacher without seeking permission for the interruption stood up and said, "I am a Kashmiri Pandit. Sir, what are yaur orders for me ?"

The Minister was down in the tongue. He left the hall in a huff, upset and disturbed.

But it was not the end of all. Before he would enter his government car, a Muslim lady teacher, nice and well behaved complained of supersession. The Minister in all sagacity informed the lady teacher that as per Islamic law two women were equal to one man and accordingly she should measure the parameters of her rights. Whether the lady teacher got convinced or not was a matter of investigation and curiosity for all present on the scene when the Minister was expressing his Islamic wisdom and scholarship.

Farooq Abdullah authoring and patronizing the Front operating under the garb of social reform, Atta Ullah Suharwardy preaching for Islamisation of India, Mohammad Maqbool playing host to the conference-cum-camp of Allah Walle and P.L. Handoo destroying all vestiges of the Hindu culture and history cumulatively led Kashmir to the brink of disaster.

Aware of all the developments in the political scenario of Kashmir, Shahi Imam of Delhi could not resist the temptation of fishing in the troubled waters. While addressing a Friday prayer meeting at Anantnag, he fuelled the communal fires designed to accelerate the processes of snapping the ties of Kashmir with India. He was loud in expressing his pro-Pak sentiments earning a loud applause from the audience and more than most stressed the implementation of UN resolutions on Kashmir to solve the vexatious tangle. His communally charged speech in the mosque was followed by a string of communal disturbances in Srinagar, Anantnag and many other places in the Valley of Kashmir. April 1988 was a bench-mark in the history of Kashmir. The communal virus had vitiated the polity of Kashmir and Shahi Imam's visit was not accidental. It was certainly a planned visit only to lend new hoes and dimension to communally charged politics of Kashmir.

That politics in Kashmir was on an absolute downslide became perceptible only when all parochial and fundamentalist forces with a communal agenda unified their ranks to form a Muslim United Front to fight the elections for the State Assembly. The Muslim United Front put up its candidates mostly in the province of Kashmir and its propaganda plank was sheer cammunalism and obscurantism. That the MUF would have won elections whole hog and formed lhe government was leagues away from reality. Farooq Abdullah stole their thunder by resorting to the same propaganda gambit that was the sheet-anchor of the MUF. The fact remains that the MUF would have won some seats from the constituencies where Jamaat-i-Islami was well-entrenched. There certainly were some constituencies wherefrom the National Conference candidates were declared successful with very low margins and thus the issue of rigging caught public eye and media attention.

The heart of the matter was that the National Conference despite its alliance with the Congress Party had lost its commitment to the politics of secularism, democracy and pluralism. It was essentially rooted in hate-India persuasions and parochial thought ways. The anti-nationals had their full sway over the organization. Secession and separatism as symbolized by the Article 370 were the main election plank. Doling out of threats to the Kashmiri Hindus that their bodies would fall in Kashmir and their tattered clothes would reach Delhi l9 were the usual fare served to feed the Muslim masses only to forment communal divide for a bigger battle. The Hindu voters never felt secure to exercise their right to vote. A Hindu Inspector General of Police had to return from the polling booth as some goon as a matter of right had impersonated for him. In 1987 elections goons of all shades had free play. The same goons worked for MUF and were manhandled and harassed by the N.C. goons. Elections everywhere have a role-conduct for the goons, just mercenaries hired by power brokers to fulfil their political ends. Kashmir witnessed the same scenario.

The strategy of the Muslim United Front was only to mobilize anti-India forces for waging a final battle for jehad (holy war) designed to win redemption from the Hindu India. Its eyes were never set on the seat of power. It kicked up hate-lndia dust with a view to measuring the public response. The Front succeeded in winning empathy from the Indian public opinion which is largely wedded to democratic ways and norms. That it was a saviour of democracy in Kashmir was the stance that it cashed in on only to smoke-screen its highly bigoted and communal agenda. As a matter of reality, the Muslim United Front signalled the deatk-knell for all pretensions that the Kashmirian Muslims had democratic values of life based on secularism and pluralism. It by all norms marked sacrificing of millennia old Kashmirian heritage at the altar of bigotry and religious strife, a reversal, a somersault or U-turn on their part, trampling upon tolerance, accommodation and mutual understanding as cohesive values in a pluralist fabric. Hindu-baiting was at the top of its agenda. Religious frenzy was what it had plans to let loose only to liquidate the Hindus. The Muslim United Front was a combine of all Muslim bigots, parochial and out-dated clerics who had been in league with and on the pay-rolls of a neighbouring country for launching jehad against the Kashmirian Hindus, who as a matter of design, were condemned as spies of India on the soil of Kashmir only for ethnic cleansing.

The elitist thinkers in India strained every nerve to attribute the proliferation of insurgency and terrorism in Kashmir to the rigging of elections. That it was a failure of democracy forcing the Muslims to the wall, left with no option other than that of violence and terrorism is a sheer half-truth. The Muslim United Front as a combination of all Muslim reaction never upheld democracy, tolerance and co-existence as canons of civilized life. Its guns were openly trained against the minorities of Kashmir, who have an inalienable right to live in the land with honour and dignity. Its open agenda was to erode and liquidate the rishi-oriented ethos of Kashmir converting it to an Islamic enclave reducing non-Muslims to the status of zimmies (second-class citizens) to be protected only on payment of hated jazia (poll tax). Wreckers of democracy could never be saviours of democracy. The watch-word of insurgency in Kashmir has been jehad, its destination has been the establishment of Nizam-e-Mustafa and its weapon has been kicking up of religious frenzy.

There is no denying the fact that insurgency in Kashmir is the direct outcome of Pak plans to subvert peace in Kashmir by proliferation of terrorism and the Indian rulers confined to their ivory towers unheeded the developments. Since 1947 Kashmir has been a hot-bed of intrigues directed to undo the historical reality of Kashmir's accession to India. A neighbouring country has been funding and feeding subversion, sabotage and mayhem. It has been combining its onslaught with the exploitation of religious ties that the Muslims have with the Muslim fraternity elsewhere. At local level, a mushroom growth of organizations operating under various dubious nomenclatures fed by money pumped in by Saudi Arabia, Iran and other Muslim countries worked havoc with the Muslim psyche preparing it for aiding, abetting and actively participating in the processees for jehad (religious war) and snapping of ties with the Hindu India.

The well-devised strategy was to involve the Muslims of Kashmir, regimenting them against India, feeding them on a farrago of half-truths and lies, calling upon them to 'awake' as 'Islam is in danger'. In view of the three wars fought by Pakistan without any tangible gains, the strategists in Pakistan succeeded in luring the Muslim youth to armed insurgency wilh the active collaboration of the Muslim leaders, who had already bridged up the political schisms and divergencies in the name of Muslim brotherhood and had propagated the perilous thoughtway of avoiding wasteful expenditure on marriages only to purchase arms and ammunition for seeking redemption from Hindu yoke. People's League, Mahaz-i-Azadi, Jamaat-i-Tulba and Umte-lslami, all holding aloft the pennon of Islamic jehad, have been in constant touch with their mentors across the borders. These organizations have been playing the Pak-game in Kashmir and flourished under official patronage and connivance.

The Indian Government, despite ominous signals, failed to act well in time. It depended on Farooq Abdullah, who had been assuring the Prime Minister that he should forget Kashmir as he had taken over the reins of government. But his treacherous act of having sent a batch of Muslim boys across the borders for arms training was of tremendous and inestimable significance in the history of Kashmiri Muslims. He gave it a ring of legitimacy buttressed by a promise of protection. He repeated the process by despatching other groups, which fact is testified to by his own confession. Fired by a sense of vengefulness and commitment to Independent Kashmir,20 he created a situation, which as per his estimates would remain well within his grip and control. But, Inter-Services Intelligence network of Pakistan had already dug deeper roots into the Muslim masses of Kashmir and had trained numberless Muslim boys indoctrinated to fiddle its tunes of annexing Kashmir to Pakistan and when terrorism opened its history in Kashmir, there were not fewer than 198 outfits operating under the direct patronage of ISI, pushing Farooq and his cohorts to the backwaters of Kashmir scenario.

Notes and References

1. Parliamentary Debates.  2. H. S. Surjeet, Situation in Jammu and Kashmir.  3. Sunday Mail  4. The Times of India, February 7,1991.  5. Hinaustan Times, 17th December, 1989; The Hindu, 11th June. 1990; The Times of India 23rd November, 1989.  6. P.L. Kaul, Crisis in Kashmir, p 238.  7. Ibid., p 244.  8. Times of India, February, 7 1991.  9. Facts Speak, p 14.  10. P.L. Kaul Crisis in Kashmir.  11. Martand file  12. The Kashmir Times, Jammu, 14th December, 1988.  13. The Submission, Srinagar, 1989.  14. P.L. Kaul, Crisis in Kashmir.  15. Genocide of Hindus in Kashmir, published by J&K Sahayata Samiti, Jammu.  16. Martand File  17. Ibid.  18. Pamphlet issued by Abdul Rahim Rather, Farooq Abdullah's Finance Minister.  19. Election Speech of Farooq Abdullah.  20. Farooq Abdullah's Bradford Speech.