The battlecry for Azadi has inspired more than a dozen Hindu youth to join the ranks of pro-Pakistan militant organisations. Baba Umar traces an unusual phenomenon
IN ZOHAND village, perched on a mountaintop of Doda district in Jammu & Kashmir, Nilkant Kumar, 65, snakes his way through corn and walnut fields to reach his son’s grave. With a pensive look, the frail man rests besides the marble tombstone that has an epitaph etched in black: “Shaheed Kuldeep Kumar al Maroof Kamraan Fareedi” (Martyr Kuldeep Kumar alias Kamraan Fareedi).
Nilkant’s memory of his son is an awkward one. He is bitter at his son’s decision to join Muslim rebels that pitted him against his own community. Kuldeep joined the pro-Pakistan militant outfit Hizbul Mujahideen in 2001, embraced Islam and changed his name to Kamraan Fareedi, and rose through the ranks to become a section commander before being shot dead on 26 August 2006.
“My son represents two incompatible truths for me,” says Nilkant, a farmer, as he caresses the grass that has sprouted over his son’s grave. “He’s a reminder of my family’s ostracisation because of our difference of beliefs. At the same time, he was the loving son who once laboured hard to provide Rs 20,000 for my medicine and the construction of our hut.”
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| ‘Lost’ son Nilkant Kumar’s son Kuldeep died in a 2006 encounter Photos: Nissar Akhtar |
The police FIR says Kuldeep was gunned down during an encounter with troopers belonging to 8 and 10 Rashtriya Rifles. It says four grenades were recovered from him. However, Nilkant says that the armymen could have arrested his son and his friend Khalid Kashmiri (a Srinagar-born militant), “but they shot Khalid on the spot and detained my son for hours before killing him”. Nilkant adds: “I heard that a jawan had asked my son if he was still a Hindu. My son asserted that he was a Muslim. Then the jawan shot him. If my son had lied, he would have been still alive.”
The festering conflict in Kashmir has attracted foreign fighters (one estimate puts the number at 5,000), some came from as far as Sudan, Chechnya, Pakistan and Afghanistan. But the emergence of Hindu militants has been unprecedented. Kuldeep is among the dozen youth from the community who joined Islamic militant groups in Rajouri, Poonch, Reasi, Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar districts.
TEHELKA trekked to Doda and Kishtwar to find out what had motivated Hindu youth such as Kuldeep to abandon their homes and join pro-Pakistan militant groups such as Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Toiba and Al Badr, but the answers are as complex as the terrain there. Although some of the families are sympathetic towards their wards, the atmosphere isn’t convivial. The families also face social boycott from their community.
But when it comes to conviction, these militants command greater respect among Muslim locals, and sometimes even among policemen and troops who have witnessed them launch audacious attacks. According to police sources, five Hindu militants have been killed so far, while one surrendered to the police and was later inducted into the paramilitary forces.
‘MONEY IS A BIG FACTOR BUT IT IS THE IDEOLOGICAL CONVICTION THAT INSPIRES HINDU YOUTH TO PICK UP GUNS,’ SAYS JOURNALIST SHAH
Bipin Kumar, the longest-serving Hindu militant, joined the ranks of Harkat-ul-Ansar in 1996 and was killed in an encounter in November 2008. Uttam Kumar alias Saifullah of the Hizbul Mujahideen met a similar fate in August 2005 after spreading terror in Baderwah area of Doda for four years. Bittu Kumar of the Hizbul Mujahideen, who was known to be active in Baderwah, is also believed to have died. The latest casualty was Subhash Kumar Shaan, who joined the Hizbul Mujahideen in 2003 and rose to become the deputy divisional commander, before getting killed on 27 July 2011. The only Hindu militant to surrender was Harkat-ul-Ansar’s Sunil Kumar, who laid down his weapons and was inducted into the paramilitary forces.
Police sources say that those on the run include Suresh Kumar of Trone village in Doda; Sachin Sharma of Surkote in Kishtwar; the daughter of Padiyarna sarpanch Janki Devi in Kishtwar; Raju of Trigam in Kishtwar; Sham Lal alias Shamsuddin of Gundali in Reasi district; Jagdeep Singh of Narkhumba in Reasi district; and Kripal Singh (Al Badr) and Krishan Lal (Lashkar-e-Toiba), also from Reasi district.
According to newspaper reports, Hindu militants from Rajouri and Reasi districts include Purshotum Lal alias Kaka Khan, a resident of Palma Rajouri; Sham Lal, who hails from Daryoti and his nephew Sanjay Lal; Sat Pal, a resident of Draj; Gudoo from Nowshara tehsil in Poonch district and Krishan Lal of Rajouri district.
“These names are listed in the ‘A’ group (the most feared). They have been a menace for years,” says a former police officer who served in Kishtwar. “One of the most feared was Subhash Kumar Shaan. I remember being part of a search party in Kishtwar when he escaped. But last year, he ran out of luck. Besides motivating many to join the militancy, he was also responsible for killing three armymen.”
WHILE SOME police officers believe that money and power are what drove these Hindu youth to join Islamic militant outfits, there are several versions about why Subhash Kumar Shaan embraced violence.
“Subhash fell in love with a Muslim girl. He embraced Islam and changed his name to Wasif Ali Rezwee to prove his loyalty to her but she snubbed him. So, he picked up the gun,” says a police officer. “Love led him to his death. His parents were angry and refused to take his body.”
But his parents have a different story to tell. In Razna village of Palmar tehsil, located 27 km from Kishtwar town, Jeevan Lal, 49, and his wife Pushpa Devi, 44, agreed to share their version of the event with TEHELKA. Also present during the meeting was Basheer Ahmad, a neighbour who has stood by the Hindu family through thick and thin ever since they descended from the foothills to build their house in a predominantly Muslim neighbourhood.
“Subhash was in Class X when he had an altercation with some Hindu boys, who beat him up mercilessly,” says Lal, who works as a police constable. “When the case reached the police station, I intervened and resolved it. I think that incident could have been a trigger. But then, he never harmed those boys after becoming a militant.”
The parents strongly reject the police contention that they had refused to claim Subhash’s body. “It’s not true,” says Pushpa. “In fact, the government never made it clear that it was my son who had been killed in Marwah. It was only through media reports that we came to know about his death. By the time we reached Marwah, the locals had performed his last rites and buried him in the mountains.”
For eight years, Subhash lived with Muslim militants in the forests of Kishtwar. He outfoxed security forces and managed to secretly meet his mother twice. He even wrote to his family a couple of times in Urdu and Hindi, apologising for harming the family’s reputation among the Hindu community.
One letter offers an insight into Subhash’s involvement in jihad and the new religion. The letter begins with a couplet: “Hamey dunya se kya lena, shahadat hi mission apna, pahadon pe dafan hongey, baraf hi kafan apna” (I have nothing to take from this world, martyrdom is my mission; buried in mountains, the snow will be my shroud). It ends with a request asking the Lal family to embrace Islam.
Ahmad says Subhash’s reason to pick up the gun could also have been the army killings that rocked Palmar. “I’m not talking about Muslim killings, but Hindu killings,” he says.
According to Ahmad, the army gunned down a local villager named Krishan Lal, tortured his cousin Amar Chand to death and also bumped off ex-serviceman Pandithi Raghunath. “Both Hindus and Muslims have suffered here. I think Subhash was moved by these killings, which prompted him to pick up the gun,” says Ahmad.
Kishtwar Deputy Superintendent of Police Chowdhury Abrar also believes that Subhash was “ideologically influenced” by Islam. “He was motivated by the doctrine,” says Abrar.
Asked about the number of Hindu militants present in Kishtwar, he says, “Seven such militants are active in Kishtwar. However, they are on the run. We haven’t seen much activity for a very long time.”
MEANWHILE, IN Surkote, located near Kishtwar town, Suresh Sharma is grappling with the mystery of his son’s fate. The police believe that Sachin Sharma (then a Class IX student) has been working with the Hizbul Mujahideen since October 1998. But the elder Sharma is wary of accepting the police’s version of events.
“One fine morning, 14 years ago, he left the house and never returned. If he is a militant, the police and the army would have shot him and produced the body. Now we believe that, maybe, he committed suicide,” says Sharma, who works with power giant NHPC. He says the family has weathered years of persecution by the police and the army, who often search their house, click pictures of the family members, or sometimes bring arrested militants to their house, who admit having known his son. “But how will I believe it unless I see my son or his body?” asks Sharma.
Journalist Syed Amjad Shah, who has been tracking the Hindu militancy phenomenon, says the “influence of peer groups” has led many Hindus to embrace militancy. Some of them are believed to have crossed over to Pakistan.
“Sham Lal alias Shamasuddin and Jagdeep Singh are believed to have crossed the LoC. They were active for a long time before they crossed over to the other side,” he says.
Shah says money could have been a motivating factor for some Hindus to join the militancy, but overall, it was “ideological conviction” that inspired them to pick up guns. “If it was just about the money, then why is this phenomenon visible only at a micro level?” asks the journalist. “The gun earned money and fame would have attracted hundreds or even thousands of youth, but that isn’t the case here.”
