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| Conspiracy theories abound post Maulana Shaukat Ahmed’s murder | | | Jasbir Sarai | 4/10/2011 7:19:46 PM |
| The Valley has witnessed a rather shocking revisit of violence due to the gruesome murder of a most respected cleric, Maulana Shaukat Ahmed, the leader of the Jamiat-e-Ahli-Hadees (JAH) in Kashmir. The Maulana was known for his liberal views and visionary ideas. He was responsible for guiding his sect along a path of development which increased its following to about 15 lakh people with more than 800 Mosques spread across the valley.
Even though the Valley has maintained exemplary calm in the face of this tragedy, some vested interests are bent upon disturbing the peace and creating communal disharmony. According to news reports, terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hizbul Mujahideen have released statements from their headquarters in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir that this murder is the handiwork of some Hindutva group. Bajrang Dal and Abhinav Bharat have been specifically mentioned in a report carried by a leading English daily, Hindustan Times. This thought process is also in accordance with certain intelligence reports from across the border indicating that the Lashkar-e-Taiba leadership has directed its cadre and some elements of the media to spread a rumour that the killing was a handiwork of some Hindutva group.
Conspiracy theories by certain segments of the separatist leadership are also flowing fast and furious. Geelani has termed the incident as, “the handiwork of the anti-Kashmiri and anti-Islam elements”. Nayeem Khan termed the killing as, “an act of enemies of the people of Kashmir who are hell-bent to divide the society and create a wedge among people”. Moulana Abass Ansari also feels that this is a conspiracy to create a wedge between people to weaken the ongoing movement. These leaders seem to be implying that the assassination has been committed by some non-Kashmiri and non-Muslim entity. This effectively excludes Pakistan sponsored terrorists and Kashmiri militants from the list of suspects and leaves only Hindu’s as the possible perpetrators of this heinous crime. It is very obvious that the tragedy is being exploited to engineer communal dissent by the spread of vitiating divisive propaganda and blatant rumour mongering. Soon enough talk of the possible involvement of security forces and other government agencies will also start doing the rounds.
A logical assessment of the insinuations gives a different set of deductions altogether. Firstly, Hindutva groups do not have that kind of presence in the Valley which would make it possible for them to carry out a high profile assassination of this nature. Take for instance the specific case of Bajrang Dal and Abhinav Bharat, the former has never shown enough interest in the affairs of the Valley to suddenly jump into the fray with an assassination of this nature and the latter is in a state of disarray with its leaders already jailed, the terrorist leadership should have done their homework right and given some more credible names to the media. The security forces and government sponsored agencies, on the other hand, do not subscribe to an ideology based on criminal acts, in any case, they have nothing to gain by getting involved in such like activities.
There is possibly a much larger, much more sinister design behind all this. It could be that Pakistan sponsored terrorist groups wanting to resurrect the failing morale of their cadre, had ordered this killing to remove a liberal moderate leader from the scene and at the same time set the pace for terrorist/disruptive activity through the incoming summer months. One will not be surprised if suddenly, a few months hence at an opportune time, some sort of evidence is produced to support the views which are being propagated now and then used to create mayhem in the Valley that traditionally happens in the summer months. This could well be the foundation for the things to come. It could be the result of a rivalry involving ideological, religious or political differences. It could be a personal vendetta. It could also be an accident, maybe the killers simply wanted to create mayhem and the Maulana became an unwitting target.
Maulana Shaukat Ahmed was a man of conviction who did not hesitate from speaking out his mind. He held pro-freedom views and yet he was known to be a liberal who was very vocal against all forms of violence. He openly denounced stone pelting and other such disruptive activities as un-Islamic and went to the extent of issuing a fatwa against them. He had no qualms in engaging with the interlocutors appointed by the Centre and despite raised eyebrows from the separatist camp he held several discussions and parleys with them. In the coming years he would have played a significant role in resolution of the Kashmir imbroglio. He had the vision, the stature and the capability to emerge as a leader of prominence.
The Maulana was a person who chose to tread the righteousness path. His liberalism and open thinking led to the two earlier attempts on his life in 2007 and 2008 while the third one was unfortunately successful. His criminal murder has been committed by someone who is an enemy of the people of Kashmir and the people of India. It is most important to flush out the perpetrators of this heinous crime at the earliest so that the real enemies of the people stand exposed. The best way to pay respects to the departed soul would be to bring his killers to justice in the shortest possible time frame. This would also help nip in the bud all the divisive theories that are being thrown around to disrupt normal life in the Valley all over again. The people of Kashmir should stand firm on the Maulana’s firm conviction towards non violence and not do anything that he would have disapproved of in his lifetime.
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