Separatists Slam IS Plan to Establish Caliphate in Kashmir

Separatists who claim to be fighting for Kashmir’s freedom from Indian rule say they oppose any effort by the Islamic State (IS) to make inroads in the disputed Himalayan region.

“IS is an anti-Islamic, inhuman group of terrorists [while] the ongoing freedom movement in Kashmir is indigenous and peaceful. The Middle Eastern terror outfit has no role to play in Kashmir,” said Ayaz Akbar, spokesman for the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an alliance of 26 political, social and religious organizations that has been fighting for Kashmir’s independence since 1993. Jammu and Kashmir is India’s only Muslim-majority state.

His remarks came in the wake of a charge sheet filed last week by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) against suspected IS recruiter Mohammad Sirajuddin, a former employee of the state-owned Indian Oil Corp. who was arrested in December 2015.

Sirajuddin’s online chats with suspected Middle East-based IS operatives revealed that the terror outfit wanted to establish a caliphate in Kashmir, a predominantly Muslim region claimed by India and Pakistan, according to the charge sheet viewed by BenarNews.

In one of the chats, Jundhulla Minaa, a United Arab Emirates-based IS member and close aide of Sirajuddin, said, “Kashmir will be Islamic State. Kashmir is Kashmir IS … Inshallah (God willing),” the charge sheet said.

IS recruits

“We strongly condemn any assertions that suggest the possibility of an IS caliphate in Kashmir. We condemn the violence and bloodshed unleashed by the terror group in the Middle East and other parts of the world,” Akbar told BenarNews.

Sirajuddin, 33, actively recruited Indians for IS, spread the group’s propaganda through social networking sites, and designed a special currency note for the IS regime in Kashmir – a 20 rupee bill that said, “IS welcome in Kashmir,” the NIA said in its charge sheet.

Sirajuddin, who is from the southern Indian state of Karnataka, is one of about two dozen suspected IS operatives or sympathizers arrested in anti-terror operations following the Nov. 13, 2015, attack in Paris that killed some 130 people. Since the establishment of IS in 2014, about 30 Indian Muslims have been arrested for allegedly working for or showing sympathy toward the terror group.

At least 23 Indians have left the country for Iraq and Syria to fight alongside the militant group and six are believed to be killed in battle, according to Indian intelligence sources.

Although recent propaganda material apparently released by IS suggests the group has made significant inroads in the sub-continent, the Indian government consistently maintains it has no footprint in the country.

Reacting to release of an apparent IS video late last month that featured Indian recruits threatening to wage war against cow-worshipping Hindus, Minister for Home Affairs Rajnath Singh said: “There is no threat from IS. Along with the alertness of the security, the Muslims of the country are also against the IS. In India, the Muslim community won’t allow them to do so.”

‘Not interested’

The International Forum of Justice and Human Rights, a group fighting against rights violations by Indian security forces in Jammu and Kashmir state, said IS had failed to leave a mark among Kashmiris because of the group’s anti-Islamic ideology.

“IS is committing acts of terror and spreading violence across the world – this very ideology is against the teachings of Islam,” Ahsan Untoo, chairman of the rights group, told BenarNews.

“Instead of focusing on Kashmir, the IS should worry about its own survival. The people of Kashmir are fighting against rights abuses and excesses committed by Indian security forces. They are not interested in killing innocent people,” Untoo said.

More than 70,000 people, an overwhelming majority of them Kashmiri civilians, have been killed since the outbreak of a separatist insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir in the late 1980s.

Shabir Ahmad Malik, a recent college graduate from Srinagar who seeks Kashmir’s independence from India, said, “Kashmiris do not need any support from an anti-Islamic group like the IS to liberate themselves from India.

“Initially, some misled Kashmiri youngsters began showing sympathy to the group. But now, I don’t believe a single Kashmiri supports the actions of IS,” Malik told BenarNews.