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Nothing new, last year they burned down a Shia imambargah in Kashmir. Shia persecution in Kashmir is centuries old.
Shias of Kashmir: Socio-Political Dilemmas | Kashmir Observer
Majority of Shia Kashmiris today are pro India, and many are in the Army are J&K Police and government services.
No one seems sure just what their name was, the two young men who began arguing at the side of the road by last Thursday evening after their vehicles brushed each other. This everyone remembers, though: one used harsh words for the Shia faith, or perhaps it was for the Sunni faith. There was a scuffle at a place called Khomeini Chowk, and then they went home.
It took just those words, though, to light fires that have destroyed lives.
Early the next morning, stone-throwing mobs confronted each other in half a dozen villages. In Payrus and in Sahipora, local police have told Firstpost, over a dozen homes and a Shia Imambara have been burned down. Fatima Mir, an elderly woman, is in critical care, battling for her life because of head injuries.
For the first time in years, troops from three battalions of the Indian Armys Rashtriya Rifles regiment have been out on Badgams streets.
The clashes that have led to curfew being imposed across the central Kashmir district of Badgam, bang next to Srinagar, and home to a significant part of the states Shia minority, arent big enough to attract attention in the national media. Everything has a context, thoughand its the context to the communal violence in Badgam thats more significant than the rioting itself.
For decadeseven centuriestheres been low-grade sectarian skirmishes in Kashmir, mostly signifying nothing more than the human capacity for violence over petty differences. In recent years, though, these skirmishes have shown a worrying uptick: tension flared up across Badgam in 2011 after a cellphone sex-clip of a Shia girl and Sunni boy surfaced, and there was violence between members of the two religious groups in Srinagars Hawal area last year.
Like such violence across South Asia, the tensions have as much to do with politics as with faith. Home to Muhammad Yusuf Shah, the fugitive head of the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Badgam once had a powerful Islamist presence. In recent years, as the jihad in Jammu and Kashmir has waned, the Jamaats reach and influence has declinedand new religious organisations have begun jostling for influence.
The pietist Tablighi Jamaat, arguably the largest neo-fundamentalist proselytising organisation in the world, has struck rootshelped by the setting spanking-new seminaries affiliated to the great Dar-ul-Uloom at Deoband, including Maulvi Abdur Rashids Dar-ul-Ulom Bilalia and Mufti Nazir Ahmad Qasmis Dar-ul-Uloom Rahimia.
Kashmirs Barelvi tradition, hard-hit by violence attributed to Mr Shahs Hizb and the Lashkar-e-Taiba, is also showing signs of revival: preachers like Ghulam Rasool Hami, head of the influential Karavan-e-Islami, and Abdul Rashid Dawoodi draw large audiences.
Its hard to say just who will win this battle for hearts and mindsbut the Deobandis have been adroit in putting their Barelvi opponents on the backfoot.
Evidence of a tide of religiosity emerged in recent survey of media use by young people by the New Delhi-based Institute for Research on India and International Studies: more than 61% of young people regularly listened to religious sermons; a quarter to ****** speeches.
Fascinatingly, the communal violence in Badgam found reference in the Syrian jihadist group Jabhat al-Nusras Twitter feed-a sign of the new kinds of transnational political currents feeding Islamism in Kashmir.
Kashmirs Shia population have mostly been bystanders to this religious competitionbut the rising tide of religiosity is fuelling fears, especially given the regional context. The assassination of National Conference-affiliated Shia leader Aga Syed Mehdi in 2000 highlighted the ideological strains: Islamist groups like the Dukhtaran-e- Millat, as also the political outfits like the Islamic Students League and the Muslim League even lashed out at secessionist leaders for attending his last rites.
Curfew in Kashmir. AFPCurfew in Kashmir. AFP
In part, the fears are driven by the fate of Shia in Pakistanwhere terrorists claiming ideological affiliation to the Deobandi tradition have been slaughtering members of the community. Murtaza Haider, a scholar, noted in recent commentary, hundreds of not thousands of Shia have been butchered; taken off buses, lined up, and gunned down.
Hermann Kreutzman, an expert on Pakistans Northern Areas, has recorded that this violence was linked to its governments sponsorship Sunni jihadists to counter Iranian influence. In 1988, former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf presided over a large scale slaughter of Shia in Gilgit, part of pre-1947 Jammu an Kashmir; he is still referred to locally as the Butcher of Gilgit.
Kashmirs Shia leadership has long feared the consequences of ****** terrorism might have for the community: in the 1990s, its leadership even sponsored a militia to cushion against the possibility of an Islamist victory. Elements of the Shia community have also drawn ever closer to the state: in 2009, hundreds turned out to mourn Shabbir Malik, a local boy who died alongside other Indian troops fighting jihadists.
I dont think, says Badgam superintendent of police Muhammad Irshad, that we should read too much into the violence. Kashmirs religious sects have lived alongside each other for centuries.
Hes right, but the Badgam violence is interesting none the less: a small symptom of a society and region going through a complex and fraught transition, the outcome of which no-one can predict.
See I consider Kashmir people into category who do not know their priorities. Some people unnecessary get involved in things of least concern to them. To start fighting on Syria is stupidity exemplified. In this sense people of Kashmir actually share a lot with our neighbors maybe being geographically closer to them. Conspiracy theorist are in plenty in Kashmir.Army Columns have been deployed in the town of Budgam in Jammu & Kashmir after clashes broke out between Shias and Sunnis over the construction of a village road.
Though nobody has been killed or badly/seriously hurt in the clashes some houses have been damaged.
The situtation is totally under control now.
Some say the clashes broke out after a heated debate over Syrian Civil War.
Sources: Outlook,PTI,IANS etc.
Army Columns have been deployed in the town of Budgam in Jammu & Kashmir after clashes broke out between Shias and Sunnis over the construction of a village road.
Though nobody has been killed or badly/seriously hurt in the clashes some houses have been damaged.
The situtation is totally under control now.
Some say the clashes broke out after a heated debate over Syrian Civil War.
Sources: Outlook,PTI,IANS etc.
It is intresting to know at what time it happened.when whole jandk was protesting against descreation of holy quran and killing of 7 civilians by indian army.now u can guess who is behind it
Today our hearts bleed when we see our mosques, Imam Baargahs and houses being destroyed, not by any outsider or enemy but by our own Muslims here and there, Malik said, adding that it is painful to see that people who all claim to be followers of last messenger of Allah are fighting, torturing, killing, attacking and destroying each other with impunity.
Source: http://www.defence.pk/forums/centra...shia-sunni-clashes-kashmir.html#ixzz2a4YmICU7
This time its the Sunnis who are on the receiving end. It started with a petty quarrel between two cab drivers and soon turned sectarian. There were many houses and vehicles burnt. The sunnis are alleging that the CRPF is siding with shias.
ok now fight till the last man standing u 2 sects.
we r muslims first then whatever u like to call us. We worship ALLAH. We have one quran one prophet and ofcourse our mission is one to convert whole world to muslim land and we r nt like hindus who worship thousands of gODS
So Shia sunni is started in India also. It is happening allover the world. How India can remain untouched from it?