Imran ‘bloodbath’ speech at UN appears to echo JEM, LET words

THE STRATEGY TO CALL ON INDIAN MUSLIMS TO JOIN THE JIHAD IN SUPPORT OF THE VALLEY IS AN OLD ONE, AND

HAS BEEN REJECTED TIME AND AGAIN.

routinely from Shaheed Chowk in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

On September 13, at a rally in Gujaranwala, Hafiz Saeed’s son Talha said “jihad fi sabilillah (jihad in the name of Allah)” would bind Muslims, while the younger brother of Masood Azhar, Talha Saif, said the situation both in Afghanistan and Kashmir had reached a “turning point”.

The common thread from PM Khan’s s peech t o Sai f ’ s t o Saeed’s was an attempt to incite Kashmiris to react with violence once the restrictions are lifted in the Valley.

The strategy to call on hinterland Indian Muslims to join the jihad in support of their brethren in the Valley is an old one, and has been rejected time and again. I n a r e s ol uti on, t he Jamiat Ulema-i-hind (JUH), the leading organisation of Islamic scholars based in Deoband, condemned Pakistan by saying that the enemy had made Kashmir a battlefield using Kashmiris “as a shield”, and supported Indian Parliament’s decision to nullify Article 370 by a t wo- t hirds majority. The Deoband seminary is the ideological mother ship for the Sunni clergy in the Indian subcontinent.

PM Khan’s call for an uprising in Kashmir was not only aimed at his domestic audience and the Pakistani Army, but also designed to appease Pakistan-based terror groups who are now questioning the relevance of Rawalpindi GHQ.

The rant against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh seemed part of the ISI’S prescription to build jihadist fever for Kashmir in Pakistan.

Interestingly, PM Khan and Army Chief Qamar Bajwa interpretation of j i had does not include Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang province of China but only confined to the Valley. This selective jihad was pointed to Pakistan after Khan’s speech by the US State Department.

While India’s permanent representative to UN Syed Akbaruddin asked first secretary Vidisha Maitra to cut down PM Khan’s arguments, it is quite evident that Pakistan will do its utmost to make the Indian government’s development plank fail in a new Kashmir.

The long road towards the region’s development has just begun.