Islamic terrorism supported by Pakistan is once again targeting India, disrupting peace in South Asia. Since June 9, the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed four terrorist attacks launched by Pakistan-sponsored terror groups.
The first attack occurred in Jammu’s Reasi District, where Hindus are a majority. Islamist terrorists attacked a bus carrying pilgrims from a Hindu temple. Nine people, including children, lost their lives, and 33 were injured.
Following this, three other Islamic terror attacks were carried out in Jammu. As a result, one CRPF (India’s Central Reserve Police Force) member was killed and seven Indian security personnel were injured.
Sadly, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is not a stranger to Islamist terrorism and massacres committed by the government of Pakistan. Since 1947, Pakistan’s jihadist expansionism has led to the ongoing conflict in Kashmir.
Kashmir was historically inhabited by Hindus and Buddhists. It had a majority Hindu population and was ruled by Hindu kings until the 14th century, when Islamic invaders entered the region. Following waves of Islamic invasions, foreign Muslim rulers occupied Kashmir until 1819. Sikhs gained control over the region in 1819 and ruled Kashmir until 1846, followed by the Hindu Dogra (an ethnic group native to the Jammu region), who reigned from 1846 to 1947.
In 1947, after India’s partition, the Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir joined the Republic of India. Shortly thereafter, Pakistan’s armed forces orchestrated an invasion of Kashmir. The Pakistani forces committed mass atrocities against the people of Kashmir, including massacres of Muslims and Hindus, as well as the capture of non-Muslim women. Thousands of Hindus and Sikhs fled, and thousands more were killed by Pakistan’s military. Indian forces were deployed to counter the invasion, but Pakistan managed to occupy a considerable part of Kashmir. The result was a full-scale war between the two countries.
India then sought the intervention of the United Nations. In 1948, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 47, requiring that Pakistani military forces withdraw from the region before a district vote (plebiscite) on the situation occurred. Instead, Pakistan increased its military presence, and no vote was held. In the area of Kashmir occupied by Pakistan, known as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), over 40,000 Hindu families were forced to flee the invading Pakistani forces.
After a ceasefire in January 1949, Pakistan remained in control of approximately one-third of Kashmir, while the remaining two-thirds were incorporated into India.
The Hindu population collapse in Kashmir occurred over the following decades. In 1984 and 1986, violent anti-Hindu riots took place in the region. Between 1989 and 1991, over 350,000 Kashmiri Hindus were ethnically cleansed from the Kashmir Valley (over 95% of the valley’s indigenous Hindu population). Mass murders, as well as the destruction of Hindu properties and temples, were used to drive out Hindus from the land. The Hindu American Foundation notes that,
The violent campaign targeting Hindus in Kashmir [in 1989-91] was organized and systematic, and included massacres, rape, threats, and intimidation. Public announcements were placed in newspapers, sermons made in mosques, and posters hung on houses ordering all Kashmiri Hindus to leave the Valley, threatening violence if they did not, and calling on Muslims to take up jihad against non-Muslims.
Scholars Divyashri Puri and Lark S. Escobar wrote for Praxis, the Fletcher Journal of Human Security:
Violent armed groups operating in Kashmir since the 1980s displayed a nexus of anti-Hindu and pro-Islamist violence, and this militancy culminated in the displacement of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990. Approximately 300,000 Kashmiri Pandits are reported to have left the region due to constant persecution from the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and other militant groups, like Hizbul-Mujahideen (HM).
The European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) reported that Hizbul Mujahideen presented Kashmiri Pandits with three choices—”ralive, tsaliv, ya galive” (convert to Islam, leave the place, or be ready to perish)—and that HM pressured Pandit [Hindu] men to flee without their wives. … In 1993, Amnesty International (AI) reported that Kashmiri Pandits’ homes and temples in the Valley had been damaged and destroyed en masse.
Those Hindus who fled Pakistan-sponsored violence in Kashmir have become internally displaced within their own country, and many have lived in displacement camps in Jammu, New Delhi, and other parts of India.
Policies such as ethnic cleansing campaigns, violent riots, and forcible displacements were implemented in Kashmir by Pakistan and previous Muslim occupiers. The result is that indigenous Hindus and Buddhists have been gradually replaced, demographically transforming the region into an overwhelmingly Muslim population. Today, Muslims comprise a majority in the Kashmir Valley, while Hindus are a majority in Jammu.
The historic region of Kashmir encompasses 85,807 sq. miles and is now divided between three countries: India, Pakistan, and China.
Pakistan occupies approximately 30,160 square miles, known as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the Northern Areas. China controls 16,500 square miles of Kashmir (through a boundary settlement with Pakistan and occupation of land during the 1962 Sino-Indian War). The remaining territory forms the Indian Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Since the accession of Kashmir to India in 1947, Pakistan has launched a proxy war targeting Kashmir. Thousands of civilians, including many Muslims, have since been murdered as a result of Islamist terrorism enabled by Pakistan. According to the Counter Extremism Project,
The Pakistani state itself has also used Islamic extremism as a strategic tool to further its interests in the region. … Pakistan therefore has tolerated and sometimes supported the activities of militant extremist groups that target Indian interests. … Extremist groups that Pakistan has tolerated or supported in the past include Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Harakat-ul-Mujahideen (HuM), Hizb-il-Mujahideen (HM), the Mullah Nazir Group, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and the Afghan Taliban and its affiliated Haqqani network.
Pakistan-backed jihadist terror groups have launched terror attacks in both Kashmir and other parts of India. LeT carried out the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, killing more than 160, and JeM was responsible for the September 18, 2016, attack on an Indian army base, killing 17 Indian soldiers.
Pakistan’s war against Jammu and Kashmir is part of the jihadists’ global agenda, which includes the goal of turning Kashmir into an Islamist theocracy. In September 2021, for instance, Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban spokesman for its political office in Doha, claimed that they would “speak for Muslims in Kashmir and elsewhere.” The following month, terrorism-related civilian deaths in Jammu and Kashmir reached a two-year high.
Pakistan’s recent terrorist attacks are a continuation of its decades-long war against Kashmir. The devastating results are: over 40,000 Kashmiri Hindu families having to flee in 1947, the ethnic cleansing of over 350,000 Kashmiri Hindus in 1989-91, the murders of thousands of civilians (both Muslims and Hindus) in terror attacks, and the sustained persecution of Hindus and Sikhs in Kashmir up until the present.
Kashmir has always been and always will be an integral part of Indian civilization. The Hindu ethnic-religious culture indigenous to Kashmir is over 5,000 years old. According to Islamic supremacists, however, Islam is the only religion that must rule over nations. World domination is the Islamists’ goal, and they believe it will be accomplished through jihad. If not stopped, the result will be more massacres and abuse of non-Muslims on a global scale, from Kashmir to the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and elsewhere.
Pakistan’s Terrorists Target Indian Kashmir
A Hindu devotee rings a bell during a festival at a temple in Kashmir on June 14, 2024. (Photo by Tauseed Mustafa / AFP)
Islamic terrorism supported by Pakistan is once again targeting India, disrupting peace in South Asia. Since June 9, the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed four terrorist attacks launched by Pakistan-sponsored terror groups.
The first attack occurred in Jammu’s Reasi District, where Hindus are a majority. Islamist terrorists attacked a bus carrying pilgrims from a Hindu temple. Nine people, including children, lost their lives, and 33 were injured.
Following this, three other Islamic terror attacks were carried out in Jammu. As a result, one CRPF (India’s Central Reserve Police Force) member was killed and seven Indian security personnel were injured.
Sadly, the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir is not a stranger to Islamist terrorism and massacres committed by the government of Pakistan. Since 1947, Pakistan’s jihadist expansionism has led to the ongoing conflict in Kashmir.
Kashmir was historically inhabited by Hindus and Buddhists. It had a majority Hindu population and was ruled by Hindu kings until the 14th century, when Islamic invaders entered the region. Following waves of Islamic invasions, foreign Muslim rulers occupied Kashmir until 1819. Sikhs gained control over the region in 1819 and ruled Kashmir until 1846, followed by the Hindu Dogra (an ethnic group native to the Jammu region), who reigned from 1846 to 1947.
In 1947, after India’s partition, the Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir joined the Republic of India. Shortly thereafter, Pakistan’s armed forces orchestrated an invasion of Kashmir. The Pakistani forces committed mass atrocities against the people of Kashmir, including massacres of Muslims and Hindus, as well as the capture of non-Muslim women. Thousands of Hindus and Sikhs fled, and thousands more were killed by Pakistan’s military. Indian forces were deployed to counter the invasion, but Pakistan managed to occupy a considerable part of Kashmir. The result was a full-scale war between the two countries.
India then sought the intervention of the United Nations. In 1948, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 47, requiring that Pakistani military forces withdraw from the region before a district vote (plebiscite) on the situation occurred. Instead, Pakistan increased its military presence, and no vote was held. In the area of Kashmir occupied by Pakistan, known as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), over 40,000 Hindu families were forced to flee the invading Pakistani forces.
After a ceasefire in January 1949, Pakistan remained in control of approximately one-third of Kashmir, while the remaining two-thirds were incorporated into India.
The Hindu population collapse in Kashmir occurred over the following decades. In 1984 and 1986, violent anti-Hindu riots took place in the region. Between 1989 and 1991, over 350,000 Kashmiri Hindus were ethnically cleansed from the Kashmir Valley (over 95% of the valley’s indigenous Hindu population). Mass murders, as well as the destruction of Hindu properties and temples, were used to drive out Hindus from the land. The Hindu American Foundation notes that,
Scholars Divyashri Puri and Lark S. Escobar wrote for Praxis, the Fletcher Journal of Human Security:
Those Hindus who fled Pakistan-sponsored violence in Kashmir have become internally displaced within their own country, and many have lived in displacement camps in Jammu, New Delhi, and other parts of India.
Policies such as ethnic cleansing campaigns, violent riots, and forcible displacements were implemented in Kashmir by Pakistan and previous Muslim occupiers. The result is that indigenous Hindus and Buddhists have been gradually replaced, demographically transforming the region into an overwhelmingly Muslim population. Today, Muslims comprise a majority in the Kashmir Valley, while Hindus are a majority in Jammu.
The historic region of Kashmir encompasses 85,807 sq. miles and is now divided between three countries: India, Pakistan, and China.
Pakistan occupies approximately 30,160 square miles, known as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and the Northern Areas. China controls 16,500 square miles of Kashmir (through a boundary settlement with Pakistan and occupation of land during the 1962 Sino-Indian War). The remaining territory forms the Indian Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
Since the accession of Kashmir to India in 1947, Pakistan has launched a proxy war targeting Kashmir. Thousands of civilians, including many Muslims, have since been murdered as a result of Islamist terrorism enabled by Pakistan. According to the Counter Extremism Project,
Pakistan-backed jihadist terror groups have launched terror attacks in both Kashmir and other parts of India. LeT carried out the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, killing more than 160, and JeM was responsible for the September 18, 2016, attack on an Indian army base, killing 17 Indian soldiers.
Pakistan’s war against Jammu and Kashmir is part of the jihadists’ global agenda, which includes the goal of turning Kashmir into an Islamist theocracy. In September 2021, for instance, Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban spokesman for its political office in Doha, claimed that they would “speak for Muslims in Kashmir and elsewhere.” The following month, terrorism-related civilian deaths in Jammu and Kashmir reached a two-year high.
Pakistan’s recent terrorist attacks are a continuation of its decades-long war against Kashmir. The devastating results are: over 40,000 Kashmiri Hindu families having to flee in 1947, the ethnic cleansing of over 350,000 Kashmiri Hindus in 1989-91, the murders of thousands of civilians (both Muslims and Hindus) in terror attacks, and the sustained persecution of Hindus and Sikhs in Kashmir up until the present.
Kashmir has always been and always will be an integral part of Indian civilization. The Hindu ethnic-religious culture indigenous to Kashmir is over 5,000 years old. According to Islamic supremacists, however, Islam is the only religion that must rule over nations. World domination is the Islamists’ goal, and they believe it will be accomplished through jihad. If not stopped, the result will be more massacres and abuse of non-Muslims on a global scale, from Kashmir to the Middle East, Europe, Africa, and elsewhere.
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