By Manzoor Anjum
September
30, 2020
Kashmir, once known to the world as the
Paradise on Earth, has been soaked in blood for the last three decades and
more. This paradise, and those who live
here, have been caught between two guns; belonging to two rivals, and believers
in two contrast ideologies and political philosophies….
Jammu and Kashmir
----
In such a scenario, the body count becomes inevitable.
There is a
third gun which none of the parties owns publicly. The unidentified gunmen!
These gunmen have spilled more blood than the identified ones.
Dead bodies
of Kashmiris have been and are being recovered from rivers, lakes, streams and
deserted places. Who killed them and why? There are no answers!
These
unidentified gunmen have killed journalists, traders, students, lawyers,
academicians, politicians, engineers, religious preachers, so on and so forth.
Someone was killed in his/her office; some inside his/her home; some on the
road and; some while entering or leaving a mosque.
Representational Pic
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Recently, a
human skeleton was recovered from Ganderbal. Who was he, and why did he meet
this fate – this question would probably never be answered.
These
murderers have downgraded the value of human lives and also the basic concept
of ‘humans as being the best living species.’
We have now
become habitual of seeing dead bodies and therefore no living human gets
perturbed by this trend. When we see body of some animal (dog, cat, monkey) run
over by some vehicle and lying on the road, we just tche, tche for a second and
move on. Same is our attitude now towards human bodies lying all around.
It seems
that abundance of such bodies has changed something within us as humans. The
nature had bestowed humans with a heart which could feel pain of others; a
mind, which could differentiate between right and wrong. How could these
nature-given faculties become a mute part of this murderous game?
Differences
of opinion, differences of thoughts, differences of political philosophies,
caste, group and creed differences exist from the day this universe came into
existence. And these will continue till the universe continues. To differ is
the basic right of every human being bestowed upon by the Creator. The
differing arguments could be wrong, could be unjust but taking someone’s life
for such differences is not just.
As a
Muslim, I believe, the Almighty too has encouraged such differences. He has
given ample and free space to differing voices. Had it not been so, why should
Allah not have just destroyed and finished Satan, who refused to bow before His
clay-made human? He didn’t do so. He allowed Satan to be and this is an ample
proof that nature can never be against difference of opinions and
disagreements.
The other
day, a young lawyer Babar Qadri was shot dead by “unidentified gunmen” at his
residence in Hawal area of Srinagar. Who were the killers and why did they kill
this young lawyer? I am not sure that if we would ever get any answers to these
questions.
Babar Qadri
was known as an outspoken young Kashmiri who struggled to form students’ union
while studying law in Kashmir University. After completing his degree, he would
be on the media, both electronic and print, articulating his views about
Kashmir. His comments in media were, at times, criticized. Even his posts on
social networking site twitter, at times, created controversies. Yet he stood
by what he used to believe in. In normal times and normal places such criticism
and controversies would have been normal. But not in Kashmir, which has been
turned into a battle ground by some big forces; it had implications.
Expressing
one’s ideas freely in Kashmir tantamount to inviting death, and that is the
reason why the intellectuals and other person of knowledge don’t say publicly
what they feel should be said. Hidden forces are not ready to accept and
tolerate differing voices. Had these forces been tolerant to opposing voices,
they would not have remained hidden. Only conspiracies can be hatched behind
the curtains and Kashmir has become hub of such conspiracies. Who is doing
what, nobody knows here. At times, some people fall into the trap of these
conspiracies without having any idea about the conspirators.
Such
situations have destroyed several societies world over and Kashmir is too
falling prey to such conspiracies. Kashmiri’s are now like commodities in the
market, they are at the receiving end and are not able to utter a word.
Article 370
was abrogated. Lots of people were not happy with the abrogation but maintained
silence. Now Pakistan is planning to make Gilgit-Baltistan as its province.
Lots of people are against this plan but would not utter a word. Why? Because
they know that breaking silence may invite death. Nobody wants to die. Because
when someone is killed, his family too dies without getting killed.
It would
not be an exaggeration to suggest that whatever situation Kashmir society is in
today is the making of its own people. We became pawns in the hands of warring
groups and started killing each other. Those who visited Babar Qadri’s home and
killed him had not come from any other part of India or from Pakistan. They
were the ones who belong to this soil. They may either be justifying what they
did or their conscience would be rotten dead, and that is why they murder
civilian people without any mercy.
Babar
Qadri’s murder is a message to those who dare to speak out. However, despite
the message, fact of the matter is there always would be some Babar Qadri ready
to die for upholding what he believes in. This is the law of nature. There
always would be Habil and Qabil (Abel and Cain). Some will
continue to follow Habil and some Qabil. That is why the Almighty has
promised the Day of Judgment. On the day both the killer and the killed would
be face to face. He will be the judge.
We humans
have to understand the philosophy of the life that has been gifted to us. We
have to introspect that whether we are doing what we are supposed to do. Had
Almighty created humans with the intention that they would only kill each
other, then why should any of His messengers have tried to establish a society
where none would be afraid of anyone? Prophet Muhammad (SAW) created a society
where a woman could travel from Mecca to Madina all alone without any threat to
her modesty or life. It was the same society where prior to the Prophet (SAW),
son would feel threatened by his father and vic-e-versa. Here in Kashmir, we
have reached such a stage where nobody knows who is the enemy and why. And that
is the reason that everyone is a threat to everyone. Politicians are scared of
politicians; traders are scared of traders; scholars are scared of scholars;
journalists are scared of journalists; fathers are scared of sons and; brothers
are scarred of brother. Fear and threats have become inalienable part of our
lives. Everyone is influenced by some philosophy and every philosophy
instigates destruction of other philosophies. Everyone is advocating death and
murder; everyone is trying to thrust his or her point of view over others. This
decay of human thought is bound to push the society into the abyss of disaster
and destruction because the situation is like what was in Arab prior to Islam
where revenge was the only human trait that people followed.
The
situation reminds of famous Urdu poet Jaun Elia’s couplet:
Ab Nahin Koi Baat Khatre Ki
Ab Sabhi Ko Sabhi Se Khatra Hai
Now there
is no worry about any danger
As everyone
is scared of everyone.
----
Note: The article was originally written in
Urdu and has been translated by Bashir Manzar
Original Headline: Kashmir: Everyone scared of
everyone!
Source: The Greater Kashmir
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-politics/the-paradise-earth-kashmir-caught/d/122998
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