Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS) For decades, a convenient myth has floated in Kashmir’s troubled history that terrorism in the valley is a blue-collar phenomenon driven by poverty, lack of education and exploitation. However, the reality has always been much more disturbing.
Kashmir’s terror ecosystem is not operated solely by the poor or the underprivileged, but by individuals who are privileged, educated, well-positioned and economically comfortable. Many people lived in spacious homes, owned land, and enjoyed social prestige. Nevertheless, he decided to lend his intelligence, networks and credibility to the machinery of terror.
This uncomfortable truth resurfaced recently with the shocking revelation that several young Kashmiri doctors were part of a sinister terror conspiracy.
For many who grew up in the valley and were forced to flee years of targeted persecution, the involvement of such professionals was no surprise. He had seen firsthand how fundamentalism had spread to every section of society – including the affluent and highly educated.
The root of terrorism in Kashmir has never been socioeconomic deprivation. It has always been ideological. Since independence, the long-term objective of Pakistan-backed separatism was the religious homogenization of the region, culminating in its unification with Pakistan. When this agenda failed through the wars of 1965, 1971 and 1999, Islamabad shifted gears. The proxy war launched in 1988 first targeted Kashmiri Pandits, forcing the entire community into exile. At the core of what was called the “war of independence”, there was a religious project of turning Kashmir into an Islamic region in line with Pakistan’s unfulfilled dream of 1947.
The terrorist conspiracy recently exposed in Faridabad, Haryana once again exposes this deep ideological foundation. The accused were not foot soldiers but doctors – men from affluent Kashmiri families with impressive educational backgrounds and comfortable lifestyles. They lived in big houses with gardens, earned well, spoke English fluently and were tech-savvy professionals; One would assume that they have no reason to engage in violence. Yet, beneath that polished exterior lies a sinister resolve. His radicalism was not born of scarcity; It was a matter of trust.
Names like Dr. Umar Mohammad, Dr. Muzaffar Ahmed, Dr. Adeel Ahmed Rather, Dr. Muzammil Shakeel, Dr. Shaheen Saeed, Dr. Mohammad Arif Mir and Dr. Farooq Ahmed Dar have now come to the fore and the list is continuously increasing.
Reports suggest that around 15 more doctors may be part of this new “D-gang”. Till now, the only D-Gang India knew of was the terror-mafia network of Dawood Ibrahim, which was responsible for the devastating 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai and has since been sheltered in Pakistan. Now, 32 years later, another D-Gang is emerging – this time not a mafia syndicate, but a terrorist gang of ruthless doctors.
The involvement of these medical professionals is no exception. The death of a suicide bomber doctor and the arrest of other medical professionals prove that successive governments at the Center have chosen to stay away from the basic reality: terrorism in Kashmir has never been about development, opportunities or lack of infrastructure. It is basically a religious war – Jihad. And this is not the first time that doctors, professionals or government officials have been involved in terrorist activities.
Since the beginning of terrorism in the valley, a large section of the educated Muslim community was deeply involved in it. They supported and enabled terrorist networks to grow and spread violence against minorities – Hindus, Sikhs and anyone suspected of being pro-India. In the early 1990s, when Kashmiri Pandits were targeted, it was often a “good old neighbour”, a co-worker or even a friend who provided terrorists with information about Hindu families.
Telecom engineer BK Ganju, who was brutally murdered while hiding inside a drum in his house in 1990, might have survived if his security had not suddenly disappeared and his neighbor had not led the killers to their hiding place. Girja Tikku would not have been gang-raped over several days and ultimately killed on a sawmill, had her own office colleagues not been part of the conspiracy. The perpetrators of the terror were educated individuals who knew the victims personally – yet they decided to betray them.
Doctors in particular have a troubling history in the Kashmir terror story. In the early years of the insurgency, there were several cases of medical professionals refusing to treat Hindu victims of terrorist attacks – not out of fear, but out of solidarity with the separatist cause.
Dr. Abdul Ahad Guru, a renowned surgeon in the 1980s, was a strong supporter of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). He was known to be a critic of the security forces and even served as a medium of communication between the government and militants. He is said to have played a role in the release of the daughter of then Home Minister Mufti Sayeed in 1989.
One of the most disturbing examples was the Shopian case of 2009. Two women, Aasiya Jaan and Neelofar Jaan, were found dead, and preliminary post-mortem reports by two doctors, Bilal Ahmed and Nighat Shaheen, alleged rape and murder by security forces. The valley erupted. Life came to a standstill for 42 days.
When the CBI investigated, it found that the women had drowned and were neither raped nor murdered. The investigation revealed that the doctors had fabricated evidence, tampered with biological samples and deliberately misled the public to create unrest. Dr Nighat also used his own vaginal swab and presented it as one of the victim’s samples. When the bodies were exhumed, it was confirmed that no sexual assault had occurred. Fourteen years later, in June 2023, the Jammu and Kashmir administration finally dismissed the guilty doctors from service. The CBI charge sheet includes not only doctors but also lawyers and citizens, which shows the depth of the conspiracy.
There have been cases where elites were identified and punished appropriately. The current Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha, took strict steps to identify hidden supporters and instigators. Some of these include Assistant Professor Dr Syed Ghulam Jilani (Kashmir University), who was dismissed in 2021 for links with separatist networks; SKIMS scientist Dr. Mushtaq Ahmed Rather was dismissed in 2021 under terrorism-related charges. In 2017, Professor Muhammad Ashraf Mir, an assistant professor at Pulwama Degree College, was arrested during violent protests. Firoz Ahmed Lone, a deputy superintendent of the prison, was arrested in 2021 on charges of helping terrorists inside the prison.
Then there is the shocking case of Dr Nisar Ul Hasan, who was posted in the medicine department of SMHS hospital, Srinagar and was also serving as the president of the Doctors Association of Kashmir (DAK). He was dismissed by the Lieutenant Governor’s administration on November 21, 2023, along with three other officials due to their terror links. But this doctor was recruited by Al-Falah University, Faridabad, Haryana and is said to be part of the D-gang.
This pattern – of professionals weaponizing their stature and skills to accomplish extremist goals – is not limited to isolated incidents. Over the past few years, several terror investigations have exposed a strong nexus between politicians, activists, doctors, lawyers, teachers and even law enforcement officials.
The idea that fundamentalism is limited to the uneducated or economically weak does not hold up to scrutiny. The valley’s struggle has always received its most significant support from within the educated class, whose influence and networks extended its reach.
The recent arrests of Kashmiri doctors planning attacks away from the valley highlight a grim reality. Radicalism in Kashmir is not a marginal phenomenon – it is deeply institutionalized, socially enabled, and often tacitly supported.
The Faridabad case is a reminder that the conflict in Kashmir cannot be understood through simplistic stories of poverty or deprivation. This is a complex, deeply ideological battle – and until the country recognizes the extent to which radicalism has penetrated even the most privileged sectors of Kashmiri society, the problem will be misconstrued.
The rot runs deep, and fundamentalism remains a bitter and inconvenient truth.
(Deepika Bhan can be contacted at Deepika.b@ians.in)
–IANS
dpb/sd