In Midst of Denial, Al-Qaeda & ISIS Slowly Creep Into the Valley

Posters on behalf of the Kashmir wing of al-Qaeda in Srinagar hint towards a new wave of Islamisation in the Valley.

(Photo: Harsh Sahani/ The Quint)

Ansar Ghazwatul Hind’s multi-colour banners have appeared in Kashmir for the first time near the residence of militant Mugees Ahmad Mir of Parimpora, in Srinagar, a couple of days after his death in an accidental encounter with the Jammu and Kashmir Police in Zakura neighbourhood on 17 November.

On 18 November, Mir’s body, draped in the typical al-Qaeda and ISIS black flags and carried by a procession of over 5,000 people, was interred in a local burial ground away from the Valley’s largest martyrs graveyard of Eidgah.

Ansar Ghazwatul Hind’s banners have appeared in Kashmir for the first time near the residence of militant Mugees Ahmad Mir of Parimpora.(Photo: Ahmed Ali Fayyaz/The Quint)  

Al-Qaeda’s Foray into Kashmir

This happened in less than four months of The Guardian reporting on 27 July 2017 that al-Qaeda’s official media arm, Global Islamic Media Front, had announced establishment of the pan-Islamist group’s Kashmir branch under the banner of Ansar Ghazwatul Hind (AGH).

Hizbul Mujahideen’s Kashmir commander Zakir Rashid Bhat alias Zakir Musa of Noorpora, Tral, who had been dismissed and replaced by Sabzar Ahmad Bhat by his organisation on account of his naked threat to the Hurriyat leaders on 13 May 2017, was declared as AGH’s founder-chief in Kashmir.

Islamisation in Kashmir

Echoing his predecessor Burhan Wani’s August 2015 video message, Zakir in May 2017 had expressed his unequivocal commitment to the establishment of the caliphate. He went to the extent of alleging that the separatist leaders were behaving like an impediment to the militants’ goal of creating an Islamic state.

Leaving our homes, our families, the comforts of world and sacrificing our future, we have come into the field of action so that the honour of our mothers and sisters is safeguarded, so that a caliphate is established in Kashmir. We will not stop until a caliphate is established across the world.

Burhan Wani in a video message, 11 months before his death

Valley’s separatist leadership, as also the media, had played down Burhan’s pro-caliphate assertion.

Announcing his disassociation from the Hizbul Mujahideen, Zakir issued a veiled challenge:

I am not going to (immediately) join any organisation. If Hizb has snapped its links with me, so do I. Let’s see how many people (in Kashmir) support Hizb and how many of them back me.

Zakir did not name Hizb chief Salahuddin but repeatedly targeted “the men in Pakistan sitting in luxurious sofas.”

On 27 July 2017, al-Qaeda’s official media arm, the Global Islamic Media Front, announced the group’s Kashmir branch, namely the Ansar Ghazwatul Hind (AGH).(Photo: Ahmed Ali Fayyaz/The Quint)  

Al-Qaeda’s Twist to the Fight for Freedom

The AGH’s announcement met a bitterly negative reaction from Salahuddin in Pakistan to the Joint Resistance Leadership – Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik – in the Valley.

While asserting that Kashmiris were caught in an “independent and indigenous freedom struggle,” they invariably dismissed groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS as “terrorist organisations who have no role or existence in Kashmir.”

Thereafter, Zakir went into hibernation, though “Musa Musa Zakir Musa” emerged the defiant youths’ most popular slogan. It was heard even at the most unexpected places – at the lynching of Deputy Superintendent of Police Mohammad Ayub Pandit at the Jamia Masjid in Srinagar on 22 June 2017, and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti’s visit to the seminary of the revered saint and preacher of 14th century, Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani, on 15 November.

Earlier on 13 July 2017, Hizbul Mujahideen militant Sajjad Gilkar’s body was also covered under the al-Qaeda flag in Malaratta, Nowhatta, in downtown Srinagar, but it was not a massive funeral procession.

New Wave of Radicalisation

Significantly, on the funerals and remembrance ceremonies of both Sajjad Gilkar and Mugees Mir, representative of the Hurriyat were kept away and not allowed to turn it into a traditional event of Kashmiris seeking “freedom” with their slogans of “aazadi” and “jeevay jeevay Pakistan”.

Hurriyat’s and the traditional militant outfits’ surrender, or expediency, is evident in the significant fact that in stark contrast to their 27 and 28 July statements, they invariably showered petals of tributes in their statements on Mugees, and characteristically called for a shutdown over his killing.

People in Srinagar praying during the funeral of militant Mugees Ahmad Mir of Parimpora, who was killed in an encounter. Sub-Inspector Imran Tak of Jammu and Kashmir Police was also killed in the same encounter in Zakoora, on 18 November.(Photo: Ahmed Ali Fayyaz/The Quint)  

According to the statements of Mugees Mir’s family members and relatives, carried in local newspapers, he was deeply impressed with the al-Qaeda’s pro-caliphate ideology, and had his study packed with their literature. He had expressed that his body should be draped in that black flag.

That is exactly what the people in Parimpora did, even as Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Shesh Paul Vaid, and Kashmir Inspector General of Police Munir Khan claimed that there were “no traces” of al-Qaeda, ISIS, and AGH in the state.

“Mugees bhai ka ek paigam: Kashmir banega daarul Islam” – this is Mugees’ message that Kashmir will become an Islamic state – is the slogan written boldly on the AGH banner at the slain militant’s house. Remarkably, it carries al-Qaeda insignia and images of Osama bin Laden and separately Mugees with a gun in his hand and his month-old son on his lap.

Also Read: Kashmir Militancy Continues Unabated as Note Ban Makes No Impact

ISIS vs Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen Claims

And significantly again, it was for the first time that the ISIS media outlet ‘Aamaq’ purportedly claimed through Twitter responsibility of “our first attack” in Kashmir in which Mugees got killed and a Sub Inspector of Special Operations Group of Srinagar District Police, Imran Tak, lost his life.

However, the Aamaq’s claim in Arabi calls Tak a “Pakistani police officer.” Without insisting that it was real, a police officer said that “such geographical errors” do exist in the group’s statement issued from distant Iraq and Syria. “For them, both are enemies. An Indian and Pakistani officer are one and the same thing for them,” he asserted.

Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen (TUM), a not-so-functional guerrilla outfit that draws inspiration from Salafist ideology and had a strong presence in Kashmir in 1990s, claimed in a statement on the day of the Zakura encounter that Mugees was its ‘district commander’ in Pulwama.

Notably, all the FIRs registered against him are in South Kashmir where he is claimed to have been active.

Some media reports insist that he was among the five masked gunmen who, on 7 April 2017, warned the residents of Kareemabad Pulwama against chanting pro-Pakistan slogans and waving Pakistani national flags at the slain militants’ funeral, calling it all “un-Islamic.”

With nobody confirming the veracity of claims by Aamaq and Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen, there is nevertheless consensus across the board that the Islamist radicalism and popularity of the ideology professed by al-Qaeda and ISIS is increasing at an alarming pace and it has already startled everyone – from Hurriyat to the local media – who have suddenly stopped dismissing the ISIS flag-wavers as “fringe.”

Political Denial

“I am not confused between al-Qaeda, ISIS, AGH and TUM. Their origin and ideology is one – that of caliphate or Islamic State,” said a conflict analyst on condition of anonymity. He pointed out that ISIS had similarly taken root and expanded in Syria.

“Also remember, for months in 1988 and 1989, we in Kashmir used to insist that the firing and blasts were being done by CRPF to create confusion,” he added.

“Denial is here like the dust in the air. People do deny things according to their convenience and expediency. It shouldn’t mislead the professionals and analysts,” said a professor of sociology at the University of Kashmir.

Also Read: Modi’s J&K Dialogue Push May Go Nowhere as Militants’ Base Grows

Denying existence of al-Qaeda and ISIS is something that suits many people here. While it prevents potential attacks on the BJP from the Opposition at the national level, it helps sympathisers and sponsors of the separatist movement to assert that Kashmiris are waging an independent and indigenous freedom struggle.

Professor of sociology, University of Kashmir, on the condition of anonymity

Police Denies the Presence of ISIS

Another Kashmir University professor at the Department of Political Science accepted some sort of “controlled expansion” of the al-Qaeda and ISIS in Kashmir:

Clearly, it appears to be a part of change in strategy. While denying their existence publicly, there have been sustained efforts to promote such groups in Kashmir.

Inspector General of Kashmir Munir Khan, however, has a different perspective. Asking how the government was in perpetual denial mode and why the police were ignoring tell-tale signs of an ideological transformation, Khan said:

We are not ignoring anything. We have removed the AGH banner from Parimpora, picked up some persons and are conducting sustained interrogation.

Khan further said that Mugees Mir’s neighbour, Tauseef, who was arrested during the encounter at Zakura, had disclosed that Mugees and Adil (another neighbour who escaped with the militant’s AK-47 rifle) were cadres of the TUM.

We are investigating if someone else is taking advantage of the situation and using the name of Ansar Ghazwatul Hind. As of now, we have no evidence of their existence in Kashmir and it all appears to be a drama of hoodwink

Munir Khan, IGP Kashmir

He categorically ruled out that ISIS terrorists fleeing Syria are shifting base to Kashmir.

Also Read: Kashmir’s Changing Colours – From Pro-Pak Green to ISIS’ Black

(The writer is a Srinagar-based journalist. He can be reached @ahmedalifayyaz. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)

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