Author: Arun Joshi
Publication: The Hindustan
Times
Date: September 6, 2000
TALIBANISATION OF Kashmir
is underway. A new organisation Din-e-Mohammad Taliban has started establishing
itself in Kashmir with an aim to indoctrinate young Kashmiri minds for
"Jehad" (holy war) in the name of pure religious education. The organisation
is sponsored and financed by Pakistan to target young Kashmiris.
It is setting up small
schools in rural areas where poor parents are lured to send their children
to school. Islamic scholars with good oratory skills and powers to influence
the impressionable minds have been recruited as teachers.
Many such schools have
come up in the districts of Pulwama, Anantnag, Kupwara and Baramulla. The
schools are getting students in large numbers as the parents are delighted
at the thought of their children getting free education.
Sources said this is
a long-term design of Pakistan to create new recruits for militancy who
would not falter in their commitment once they pass out from schools. "It
is a repeat of what Pakistan did in Afghanistan, creating Taliban".
Sources said Pakistan
has already tasted success of this experiment earlier as the graduates
of the Jamait-I-Islami-run schools in Kashmir had proved better militants
than others.