In early 1986 were the first clear outbreaks of violence when Muslim fundamentalists attacked the minority Kashmiri Pandits. 46 The exact reason of the outbreak remains unclear, but at the end of it dozens of Pandits had been killed and 24 Hindu temples had been burnt by Muslim mobs. 47 Violent disturbances such as these were all carried out in the name of Islam. The Governor of Kashmir at the time, Jagmohan, observed that most of the disturbances that took place occurred on Friday nights as crowds dispersed from the mosques 48 . Mosques became a platform for religious sermons intermingled with fiery political speeches. The people delivering these speeches were often trained mullahs, who had been sent to Kashmir from Pakistan for this specific purpose. A Kashmiri who attended Mosques during this period commented that such provocative language and distorted facts were
used that even deep-thinking and highly learned persons who listened to these would certainly arise too. Thus, on Friday nights it became quite common for public vehicles to be stoned and police to be attacked49 . In fact, the outbreak of militant violence that became commonplace in the valley was a purely contemporary concept for Kashmiris. Kashmir has no history of resisting hordes of foreign rulers, and in fact was shaped by principles of non-violence and pacifism as dictated by Kashmir’s cultural heritage in the Rishi Order 50 . Thus, it was easy for the Islamic fundamentalist influence to take hold of the submissive Kashmiri people. By using Islam to justify their violence the insurgents were able to refer to their struggle as ‘justice’.
