Regardless of the beguiling spin that most apologists, defenders, ideologues, sympathisers, supporters of Kashmiri separatism give to justify their cause in the name of Kashmiri nationalism, the roots of this movement and its driving force lie in Islamism, Islamo-fascism and Islamist exclusivism. From the time when the Muslim Conference was in the vanguard of making Kashmir a part of the Islamic State of Pakistan, to the time in the early 1990s when a wave of terrorism was unleashed in Jammu and Kashmir (the so-called “secular” Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front was in the forefront of the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits), to now when another upsurge is being witnessed – the Islamist impulse has been the main inspiration and motivation of the separatists. While some of the separatists try to disguise their Islamism by calling it a “political problem” and linking it with Kashmiri identity, there are others who are less hypocritical and more upfront, even brazen, about the Islamist underpinnings of the cause for which they are fighting.

The Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist, Zakir Musa, was being completely honest and truthful when he declared that the struggle he was associated with was an Islamic struggle for the enforcement of Shariah. And like the genuine article Islamist warrior that he is, he threatened to chop off the heads of the Hurriyat leaders who called the separatist movement a “political movement”. Exposing the double-speak, hypocrisy, dissemble of the Hurriyat leaders who try resort to duplicitousness by couching their Islamism in political terms, he reminded them of the slogans they have raised – Pakistan se rishta kya, la illah il allah (What is our relationship with Pakistan: No one is worthy of worship except Allah) and Azadi ka matlab kya, la illah il allah (What is the meaning of freedom: No one is worthy of worship except Allah) – to mobilise people to support their cause.

To be sure, his candidness stunned the Kashmiri separatists and their Pakistani handlers/masters. Not only was Musa challenging and threatening the public faces of the Pakistani proxy war, he was also outing the true nature of the unrest in Kashmir before the international community. At a time when Pakistan is desperately trying to get some support from the rest of the world for their stand on Kashmir, Musa’s video statement stood as testimony to the Islamist agenda of the terrorists and their political frontmen, and has proved extremely damaging for the fake narrative on Kashmir that Pakistan is trying to build and sell to the world.

The optics of an Islamism-driven insurgency in Kashmir is hardly going to go down well in most of parts of the world which are struggling against Islamist terror groups like the ISIS and Al Qaeda. The fact that Musa and his ilk adhere to the same medieval brutish ideology and make no bones about it, is certainly not going to win them any sympathy, much less support in the international community. It is now increasingly clear that the waving of ISIS flags alongside Pakistani flags wasn’t so much about provoking outrage in India as it was about declaring ideological affinity with Islamism. What is more, the Islamists don’t see any contradiction between ISIS and ISP (Islamic State of Pakistan), the latter in many ways being the original article.

Pakistan and its underlings in Kashmir would of course want to keep the reality of Kashmiri separatism hidden. Hence, the repudiation of Musa by his nominal boss, the Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin. But clearly, Salahuddin is being utterly disingenuous in calling Musa’s statement “unacceptable and his personal views”. The fact of the matter is that Salahuddin, who heads the United Jihad Council, is no poster boy of liberal, progressive and secular values. If anything, he is an unabashed Islamist and there are innumerable statements of his, more or less saying the same things that Musa has said. Salahuddin’s links with the Al Qaeda, Taliban and their affiliates are well-known. His ideological mentor, Syed Ali Geelani, is another Shariah fanatic who has never hidden his desire for Islamising Kashmir. Geelani was even responsible for acid attacks on girls who weren’t wearing hijabs and issuing other such Talibanesque diktats to enforce Shariah on the people of Kashmir. Other separatist stars like Asiya Andrabi and Musarrat Alam are known to have close links with international Islamist terror groups. Andrabi, for instance, is not only suspected of trying to recruit people for the Khorasan chapter of ISIS but also has had relatives in Pakistan arrested on charges of being involved in an Al Qaeda terror plot.

In reality, therefore, Zakir Musa represents the true face of Kashmiri separatism which not only has its roots in Islamism but also seeks inspiration from Islamist movements in other parts of the world. If in the early 1990s, the influence of the Afghan mujahideen on the separatists in Kashmir was palpable, today the influence and inspiration from radical Islamic groups such as ISIS, Al Qaeda and even the sectarian terrorists is undeniable. The signs of this are everywhere – social media, graffiti, pamphlets, political statements, and what have you.

For anyone – in particular the retired officials who botched Kashmir in the first place, politicians way past their sell-by-date trying to find some relevance by dabbling in Kashmir, and the usual suspects in the not-so civil society – to claim that Kashmir is a political and not a religious problem is nothing but a travesty. Even Pakistan agitates the issue at the diplomatic stage (especially in the Islamic world) by framing it as an Islamic problem. And yet, in India there is an astounding denial of what is at play and a reluctance to admit that the current disturbances in a few districts of the Valley are in essence an outcome of radical Islamism and not the result of some inchoate and insufficiently imagined Kashmiri nationalism (which too is Islamist in orientation).

While the pseudo-liberal lobby in India, as usual, transcends all limits of ludicrousness by not only calling the disturbances in Kashmir a political problem but also insidiously suggesting that a political movement of separatism is more acceptable than a religiously motivated movement of separatism, for the Indian state any such distinctions are simply irrelevant. As far as India is concerned, it matters little whether the separatists are driven by the impulse of Kashmiri nationalism or by the lure of Islamism. Both are equally unacceptable. But the distinction between a religious and political movement becomes important insofar as how best to handle the problem is concerned.

If a religious movement is mistaken for a political movement and measures are taken on the basis of a faulty understanding of the problem, the solution will either be ephemeral or elusive. The instruments used for handling a political problem are very different from those that will have to be used for tackling a religious problem. This is the reason why, if India continues to view Kashmir as a political problem – as indeed it has been doing for decades now – it will never be able to forge an effective policy to solve the unrest in Kashmir. Zakir Musa has given a wake-up call to the Indian political and security establishment. Will What remains to be seen is whether India wakes up or prefers to remain in snooze mode, postponing the waking up for as long as it can?.

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