For the past three years, there have been no new appointments in the J&K Waqf Board as consolidation and reforms were a priority. Till Thursday, May 1. During this time, it has been ably led by Dr Darkashan Andrabi, a BJP leader and poetess, who acted promptly after the Pahalgam terror attack by Islamists. She handed over an appointment letter to Nazakat Ahmad, a brother of Syed Adil Hussain Shah, who was killed in Baisaran meadow on April 22.
Adil was a Muslim killed in that terror attack carried out by Islamist fundamentalists who were acting as proxies for Asim duo, Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir and his protégé ISI Chief Lt Gen Asim Malik. For the past few decades, it has been seen that the Pak Army Chief decides, ISI hatches and executes diabolical plans to derail peace in South Asia.
If late Atal Behari Vajpayee went to Lahore in a bus in the first half of 1999 to try to take India-Pakistan relations to a different level, his efforts were buried on Kargil heights by General Pervez Musharraf. Fast forward to 2015, and Lahore it was that Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited to attend a private family function being hosted by Nawaz Sharif. What he got as return gift from terror proxies orchestrated by the Pakistani Army was the Pathankot air force station attack.
Low Cost, High Visibility
If the record is carefully scrutinised, such incidents pop up on the timeline in a sickening pattern, with monotonous regularity. This is basically because the Pakistan Army, having been beaten squarely by the Indian Army, repeatedly, has decided that Islamist jehad through terror proxies is a safe and low cost, high visibility option.
Due to inferiority in conventional war machinery, manpower and fighting prowess, the Pakistan Army worships devil incarnates that terror outfits like Lashkar e Toiba (LeT) and Jaish e Mohammad (JeM) are. To avoid taking on the Indian Army in conventional battlefields, the chosen method of Pakistan Army is to send in cowards into the Indian territory and do guerrilla warfare. Its guerrilla tactics are focussed on killing innocent civilians, invariably always Hindus.
During the hit job that Pakistan’s terror proxies carried out at Sonamarg, at Z tunnel work area, a Kashmiri Muslim, a doctor, also died and was essentially a collateral damage and not the intended target. Earlier before that, on June 9, 2024, terrorists fired at a bus full of Hindu pilgrims in Reasi district. This narrative of terrorists targeting Hindus in Baisaran (Pahalgam) as a one-off incident is bumkum, an utter falsehood.
Hindu Killings
In Pahalgam also, they selected Hindus, one after another, before shooting them point blank after asking them whether any of them was Muslim. Adil Shah died in Pahalgam and got bullet for his efforts. He too was collateral damage, and not intended target, but politicians jumped to wag their tongues in double quick time to portray him as a brave Kashmiri Muslim who tried to defend tourists.
The candle marches, shutdowns etc organised all over Kashmir within hours of the Baisaran massacre of Hindus has a deeper meaning than protest. It worries ordinary Kashmiris no end that killing of 25 Hindus may keep away 25 lakh Hindus who may fear visiting Kashmir this year, and in the years to come, their numbers may slump.
Aga’s `Cultural Invaders’
More tourists, cultural invaders as National Conference (NC) MP Aga Ruhullah calls them, are welcome only for taxiwalas, ponywalas and hoteliers. Not for this Shia cleric whose father Aga Syed Mehdi was shot dead in 2000 by unknown gunmen. His wife is an Iranian and he draws inspiration from hardline Shia theology practised there.
Colourful tapestry of clothes that Indians wear, different styles too, is not acceptable to him. The soft spoken, but hardline promoter of anti-Hindu hate, is dupliticious as also dangerous in extreme. His mind pines for the pitch black darkness of burkas which he sees all around in Iran, his sasural. He would perhaps ask Hindu tourists not to pollute Kashmir with their arrivals and harm the culture.
Incidentally, he needs to be reminded that Kashmir was 100 per cent Hindu barely 600 years ago. Till the advent of Shamusuddin Araki, a proselytiser, whose works are available in libraries in Budgam where Aga draws his inspiration and strength from. In his lifetime, he has been witness to systematic genocide of Kashmiri Hindus, takeover of their properties and encroachments on temple lands.
True Kashmiriyat?
Turn back the pages of Kashmir history backwards a few years, and we see thousands of Kashmiris shouting anti-India slogans when Burhan Wani, a poster boy of terrorism in Kashmir, was killed. It is unbelievable and utterly stupid to think that the supporters of Burhan have transformed into Hindu-loving angels within less than a decade. A very large number of them wear a false façade of amity and welcoming smiles for they can take money from tourists who marvel at the beauty all around.
Aga is one of their leaders and a very large number of them have been taught to believe that Hindu money is halal, these kafirs are not.
One wonders about the true meaning of Kashmiriyat, a coinage which is neither here nor there. In Hindi, devnagri, compound words are made by joining of two or more words. Some who claim to understand Kashmiri psyche well say the word Kashmiriyat is made of Kashmir+ Shariat.
J&K Waqf Board
Under BJP, the J&K Waqf Board seems to be doing well going by how it promptly provided help to the poor family of Adil Shah. In fact, the waqf board in the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu & Kashmir has a very good record as compared to its counterparts elsewhere in the country. Its chairperson Dr Darakshan Andrabi, while handing over the appointment letter, said this is what waqfs are meant to be. Helping the poor and the needy.
Incidentally, when some amendments in waqf were being debated in Parliament some days ago, Aga went into a sulk as he could not speak. With only two MPs in the Lok Sabha, NC floor leader Mian Altaf made points on behalf of his party there. To the annoyance of the Aga.
It bears mention here that Mian Altaf is also a religious leader, with a following that embraces lakhs of people, but he is very much unlike what Aga and others of his ilk. Distinctly different. Till date, one has never heard about Mian Altaf, or read about his father, or grandfather, who were also legislators, speak a word what can be considered out of line.
