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| Process of religious cleansing in Kashmir still on | | Number Of Christians Dwindling | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 11: The growing stranglehold of radical fundamentalist on various organs of the society in Kashmir Valley during last few years is taking a shape which only blind can ignore. Even the very small number of Christians living in the Valley, which as per local estimates is not more than 400, is coming down through a silent process of internal displacement due to fundamentalist intimidation. As per the knowledgeable sources within the Christian community living in the Valley, around 200 of this small population have already shifted to safer places outside the Valley. The intimidation and constant mental attrition to which this small miniscule group of Christians has been subjected to after the extra constitutional arbitrarily constituted Shariat Court started issuing fatwas against Christian priests for alleged conversion of Muslims to Christianity is reflected by the dwindling number of Christians living in the valley. Those who have come out are frightened to be identified and say that "after ensuring the religious cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus, the fundamentalist attrition on Sikhs and Christians living in the valley has become brazen and intense".
The fundamentalist siege of the social mind is reflected in expressions of bizarre insecurity. Their hegemonic assertions go uncontested. When they claimed that "there was a conspiracy to settle Hindus on the most inhospitable and extremely cold and barren slopes of Himalayas around the Amarnath Shrine" it led to an agitation which brought the state government down. The unsubstantiated allegations that the "Christians, who are not more than a few hundred in number, are now conspiring to convert Muslims has not as yet taken the grip of the common man in the Valley". But in the absence of any contestation of the fundamentalist claims their vicious propaganda gets flaunted as a gospel truth. National Conference, which has a long standing history of promoting fundamentalism, is only looking the other way. Congress is only appearing to be as helpless as it has been in all other matters somehow clinging to power without any qualms of conscience. How could Islamic Shariat Courts operate in the Valley, issue fatwas of blasphemy, under the nose of a government which loses no opportunity of self-patting itself to be a guardian of constitution and secularism?
For last few years intimidation of Sikhs and Hindus living in the Valley has been brought to the fore by media reporting many a time. The state government and the fundamentalist regimes have only responded almost in tandem by making the emasculated organisations and leaders of these minorities in the Valley to issue statements of denials and proclaim as if everything is hunky dory. Recently in a meeting held in Jammu by the Kashmiri Hindu employees who recently joined their jobs in the Valley tried to form a body to represent them. The problem they were facing was that nobody wanted to give his name as an office-bearer. They formed a body but in their press note chose to give their names without revealing their surnames. When asked some of the returnee employees said: In Kashmir to speak against the government or the established order is almost impossible".
The intimidation of local moderate Muslim groups in the Valley is also getting manifest. The local shrine worshipping Muslims are alarmed at the growth of Wahhabi influence locally. As per them, more and more organisations locally are coming under the influence of Wahhabis and mosques in the villages are shifting their allegiances. In this growing fundamentalisation the failure of Congress party to play role is evident and they are seen more as facilitators of fundamentalism rather than representing secular resistance. |
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