by Prof. Mohan Lal Koul
Chapter Sixteen: Ghulam Mohammad
Shah - Loot of February 1986
URL: http://www.ikashmir.org/PastPresent/chapter16.html
Farooq Abdullah lost his power when
his brother-in-law, Ghulam Mohammad Shah, established his credentials of
enjoying majority support in the Legislature.l He was an inefficient Chief
Minister, who only took Kashmir to the brink of disaster by fuelling secessionist
and divisive fires, polarising the entire polity on communal lines and
harassing the minorities. Ghulam Mohammad Shah given to temper tantrums
was not well received by the Islamised bureaucracy, which was well entrenched
with deeper commitments. Shah spent most of his time in coercing the Muslim
bureaucracy into subjugation only to establish his full sweep over it.
His desperate attempts to make the bureaucracy accountable proved disastrous
for him resulting in his absolute unpopularity with the Muslims manning
the governmental machine.
Ghulam Mohammad Shah in the same
line of the Muslim leaders ultimately stuck to an Islamic agenda of constructing
a mosque within the premises of Jammu secretariat. The opinion leaders
in Jammu did not savour it well and felt hurt and inflammed. A Hindu organisation
sponsored an agitational programme against the Chief Minister's sinister
move. There were protests and hartals. Effigies of the Chief Minister were
hatefully burnt thereby ventilating their deep-set anger against him for
his blatant communalism. Ghulam Mohammad Shah got unnerved in face of the
massive protests from all sections of people in Jammu. The move initiated
by him was only to gain popularity with the Muslims of all hues and thus
emerging as their saviour.
Uncouth in his behaviour and invested
with rough edges, Shah talked patent communalism to a delegation of the
Hindus resenting the construction of a mosque inside the government secretariat.
Without mincing words, he said, "I am a fanatic Muslim. I say prayers five
times a day. It is the right of every Muslim that he be allowed to pray
five times a day. Hence it is necessary that there should be a mosque within
the government office."3
The fanatic attitude of the Chief
Minister was sufficient to generate massive protests against him. In his
capacity as the helmsman of the state, he was expected to maintain communal
peace and amity and that formed his constitutional obligation and responsibility.
Instead throwing all secular and just norms to winds, he resorted to the
religious agenda only to gain the sympathies of the Muslims, who hated
him the most.
What shocked Shah and more than
most the Islamised bureaucracy was that the Hindus of Jammu removed the
mosque. And that prepared the ground for loot and plunder of the Kashmirian
Hindus.
It was on 20th February, 1986 that
Ghulam Moharnmad Shah reached Srinagar, which was rocked by massive demonstrations
against the unlocking of the Ram Janambhoomi Temple throwing it open to
the Hindus for worship. It had touched their raw nerve. They yelled that
Islam was in danger. The Kashmirian Hindus had to face the worst ever harassment
and intimidation. As if it were not enough, a new conspiracy was hatched
against them by floating a rumour that all mosques in Jammu had been destroyed
and not fewer than two hundred Muslims had been massacred and bus-loads
of dead bodies were on way to Srinagar.
The worst role for the dissemination
of unfounded rumours was played by the Islamised bureaucracy with police
personnel manning the whole campaign. The rumours were carried into the
remotest of the villages and hamlets designed to the extermination of the
Hindus. Shah as the helmsman of the state taking shelter under the protective
wings of the Islamised bureaucracy well fathomed the strength of it. The
upsurge that was deliberately generated by the state power was used as
a rehearsal for the communal holocaust and carnage that were already on
cards.
The cumulative product of the rumours
was the instantaneous mobilisation of the Muslims of all hues against the
Kashmirian Hindus. Anti-national elements and secessionists were the first
to get mobilised raising the usual bogey of 'Islam in danger.' 'Pakistan
Zindabad' rent the skies. Every Muslim was gearing up for waging a war
on a fragile minority.
As the situation was developing,
Mufti Mohammad Sayyid 4 as the provincial Congress chief felt lured to
fish in troubled waters. He perceived it as a god-send opportunity to fuel
the communal fires leading to the dismissal of the Shah Ministry and thus
brightening up the chances for his taking over as the Chief Minister of
the state. Qazi Nissar, a protege of Mufti Mohammad Sayyid, played a frontal
role in the Muslim mobilisation against the Hindus. The Congressites in
the entire district of Anantnag were equally cruel to the Hindus in matters
of looting, plundering and burning their material properties and religious
places of worship. The formidable Muslim combine forgetting their political
persuasions and sinking their differences started on a looting and burning
spree, ravaging village after village. The looters were led by leaders
of all complexions. Political affiliations did not divide their ranks and
what held them together as a solid mass for a unified action was the faith
of Islam sanctioning their war on infidels (kafirs). The Kashmirian Hindus
as hapless and terrorised victims to loot, plunder and arson rang up the
police stations for assistance and protection but there was no response.
The entire drama of destruction and loot was stage-managed by the Islamised
bureaucracy with police as its vital cog. As a matter of design, the state
authority disappeared from the scene in a jiffy and law-enforcing agencies
proved a party to the loot and plunder of the Hindus. It was a rehearsal
of one act of the drama of death and destruction conceived and scripted
by the demon of Muslim bigotry presiding over the Muslim psyche.
The government only as an eye-wash
imposed curfew in some areas. It was only to deter the Muslim looters from
looting, destroying and plundering the material properties of the Hindus
and burning their temples. But what was stunning that the police never
enforced curfew restrictions and maximum damage was inflicted on the victims
during curfew hours. The looters moving in wave after wave faced no resistance
from the law-enforcing authorities. The Kashmirian Hindus suffering the
worst-ever atrocities fled their homes only to take shelter in open fields
leaving their properties to the Muslim hordes for loot, plunder and arson.
The looters were fully equipped.
They carried lethal arms only to kill the Hindus had they dared offer resistance.
They carried inflammable materials like petrol and kerosene for burning
of Hindu houses and Hindu temples. It was an open loot and arson committed
on the Hindus. Could it be called a riot as the Hindus were not in the
picture at all ? They fled their homes leaving for the looters to loot
and plunder them. The religious frenzy generated by false rumours led to
the subjection of the Hindus to atrocities only heard of in tribal societies.
No Hindu was killed for the tact that he offered no resistance to the brutal
Muslim aggression. It was not out of tolerance and compassion that the
Muslims did not resort to the ruthless killing of Hindus. They as a brutalised
lot indulged in loot, destruction, arson and molestation and to all intents
and purposes were one inch away from the genocide of the Hindus.
Nearly five hundred houses were
looted and plundered and denuded of all houses-hold articles which in tribal
fashion were put to sale in the open market. Fifty houses were completely
gutted leaving three hundred families shelterless and completely battered.
Hundreds of Hindu shops were looted. More than sixty temples were desecrated
and forty were set ablaze. All hotels and business enterprises belonging
to the Hindus and even their fields with standing crops were destroyed
and pillaged. Hindu women-folk were insulted, humiliated and molested.5
Wanpoh, Lukbhavan, Fatepur, Gautam Nag, Salar, Akoora and Sopore were worst
hit 6 and the Muslim hordes operating under religious frenzy indulged in
loot and destruction to their heart's fill sending a chill down the spine
of the victimised and hapless Hindus.
The loot, destruction and mayhem
were organised by the state machine involving the Muslims hordes harbouring
hatred and antipathy towards the Hindus. Nothing had happened in Jammu
and dance of destruction was stage-managed by the dissemination of apochryphal
rumours. Had the Muslims been actually killed in Jammu, there would have
been a genocide of the Hindus in Kashmir.
Ghulam Mohammad Shah proved the
worst ever enemy of the Kashmirian Hindus, who at his behest were looted,
ravaged and put to arson and mayhem. He was no secularist and behaved essentially
as a bigoted Muslim. The state machine had already slipped into the lap
of bigoted and mayopic Muslim bureaucracy. Upholding the Muslim agenda
as usual, he endeavoured to prove a defender of the Islamic faith and more
than most a saviour of Muslims. He equally facilitated the induction of
the notorious pro-Pak elements into the police force. He was reported to
have raised two battalions in Kashmir police force comprising mostly the
Jammat-i-lslami followers. His regime was completely identified with communalism
and sectarianism. The communal forces rehearsing the drama of death and
destruction felt absolutely sanguine that time for final battle was ripe.
The policy of death and dcstruetion
pursued against the Kashmirian Hindus was not well heeded by the powers
at the Central Capital. Arun Nehru in his capacity as the Minister for
Internal Security failed to take note of the grave signals thrown up by
the communalists masquerading as nationalists and did not deem it fit to
devise the remedial measures for saving Kashmir teetering on virtual political
chaos. Stage for secession and separatism was already set. The atrocities
inflicted on the Hindus were a device to measure the response from the
Indian State and the people of India. Measuring the full-scale developments
as per their parameters, the secessionists and separatists in full preparation
embarked upon the war path only to challenge lndian presence in Kashmir.
The Muslims without letup went on
desecrating and plundering the Hindu places of worship. Bombs and grenades
were hurled on temples and shrines in Srinagar and Ganderbal. The express
objective was to scare away Hindus, who, despite all forms af intimidation,
clung to their home- land. The Sayyid formulations of transforming Kashmir
into an Islamic state continued to provide guidelines and impetus to the
Muslim fanatics in matters of liquidating all traces af Hindu culture on
the soil of Kashmir.
The loot and plunder of temples
and shrines was not the handiwork of thieves and burglars. But politicians
of all hues working out pak designs were behind such outraoeous acts. Sivalinga
of Dewan Temple, Goddess Kali of Anantnag and fossil images and memorial
stones dating back to the hoary past of Kashmir were either burgled or
broken.8 The policemen guarding the Mahakali idol at Hariparbat did not
report the incident of theft attempted by vandals thereby establishing
their complicity and connivance. However, some arrests were made and a
pistol of Pakistani make and a revolver were seized from their possession
and the persons involved were charged with theft, burglary and violation
of Arms Act. But what was amazing that politicians intervened only to secure
their release.9 The vandals were highly motivated Muslim youth operating
under political patronage out to undermine any semblance of communal peace
and amity. A close nexus between politicians and thieves and burglars with
political persuasions was perceptible designed to liquidate the Kashmirian
Hindus along with their culture and history.
There was no stop to the loot, plunder
and murder of the Kashmirian Hindus, who never demanded any special privileges
except their right to live as respectable citizens of a democratic country,
but the Muslim bigots basking in the sun of political patronage never allowed
them peace and respite. Trouble was created round their shrines. False
and illegal claims were put forth over their places of worship. Terror
was created to scare them away only to establish an illusory Islamic state
based on religious myopia and sheer bigotry. Killings were planned only
to fructify their political motivations. The unbroken chain of events from
the village of Batsargam to Siligam to Vitasta-Verinag to Lok Bhawan to
Tral 10 pointered to one design of launching upon an onslaught on the Hindus
and their places of worship. Boycott of the Kashmirian Hindus of Lok Bhawan
led by the rabid communal elements as an ominous development was a pointer
to the elimination of the Kasnmirian Hindus, who were projected as the
enemies of Islam. No rational Muslim appeared on the scene to oppose the
social boycott of the Hindus, instilling confidence in them and dispelling
the thick pall of fear and gloom.
There were agencies funding, planning
and executing the murders of the Kashmirian Hindus. A Hindu youth in his
thirties was killed by a mercenary, who, when interrogated, confessed that
he was paid money to kill any Hindu coming his way. Who planned the murders
? Who paid money for such outrageous acts ? Did the rulers take a serious
view of it ? Was the entire gang busted ? What the police did was only
to hush up the whole case by posing the murderer as an insane. The reality
of the matter was that the regimented and chauvinistic elements in the
state police were in league with criminals planning and executing the murders
of the Kashmirian Hindus. The man at the helm was himself a religious bigot,
obsessed with the construction of a mosque, lacking in other empathies.
It was no longer his concern to provide safety to the miniscule minority
of the Hindus against such onslaught on their basic right to live and live
with safety.
It was under the very nose of Ghulam
Mohammed Shah that the Kashmirian Hindus were looted and plundered on 15th
August, 1984. The anti-nationals observed the Independence Day as a black
day. They moved about the streets of Srinagar in huge processions waving
Pakistani flags and chanting anti-India slogans. Their main objective was
to storm the sports stadium where the ceremonial parade was being held.
In face of police resistance, they had to beat a retreat. While retreating,
they let loose a reign of terror over the Hindu localities in Ganpatyar
and Habakadal in Srinagar. Hindu shops were first looted and then burnt.
The Muslim hordes looted and ravaged the Hindu houses with vengefulness.
A scooter looted from a Hindu house was set ablaze. Nearly a dozen bicycles
looted from the Hindu houses were sadistically thrown into the Jhelum.
Most of the temples in the areas were heavily pelted and scores of Hindu
girls were insulted and molested. l l
Under the political hegemeny of
Ghulam Mohammad Shah, the Hindus of Kashmir were openly looted and plundered.
Their religious p]aces were desecrated, ravaged and burnt. He weeded out
all the remaining traces of secularism in Kashmir. He had nursed a life-
ambition of constructing a mosque even in Rashtrapati Bhawan.12 He did
not have a quirk of conscience when he connived at the grabbing of a huge
piece of land belonging to the Hindu Trust of Dharmarth by Molvi Iftikar
Hussain Ansari, a Congress legislator for his business venture, Ansari
Motors, Srinagar.
Notes and References
l. Jagmohan, Frozen Turbulence.
2. Refer to Mrs. Gandhis comment,
Aina Haqiqat, issued by J & K National Conference (K).
3. Narendra Sahgal, Dharmantarit
Kashmir (Hindi).
4 Mufti Mohammad Sayyid was openly
accused of fomenting communal strife in Kashmir by K.N. Singh, the then
Congress I, general secretary.
5. Narendra Sahgal, Dharmantrit
Kashmir.
6. Y.B. Chavan's report submitted
to the Prime Minister of India.
7. Kashmir Ki Vedana (Hindi); Genocide
of Hindus in Kashmir.
8. Indian Express, 26th April,
1985.
9. Kashnlir Times, 20th April,
1985
10. Martand, 15th August, 1985
11. Times of India, August 16,
1984
12. Speech by G.M. Shah, published
by N.C. (K), Srinagar.
