Kashmir and the tale of two Faisals

Dancing with Pak: Let's find some new moves
In June-July 2006, I participated in a goodwill mission between Mumbai and Karachi. On July 11, days after our return from a goodwill trip to Karachi, Pakistan-inspired terrorists struck at Mumbai trains, killing over 180 people. But such is the public memory in India that it has been totally forgotten.

The Obama administration now wants Indians to forget the 26/11 Mumbai attack and continue with the peace process with the recalcitrant nation.

Pakistan is the world’s most dysfunctional state- it denies its ethnicity (most have notions of being Arabs), history, culture, language and even geography (with the US nodding,  Pak thinks itself as an extension of Middle East).

In addition there is a total disconnect between the elites and the masses and the civil society has very little influence over either the masses or the government, which is actually the Army. 


The root cause of Pakistan’s emergence as the epicentre of world terrorism is the systematic brainwashing of young students with hate for last 20 years.

In 1986 while working for my PhD on regional security, I sought and managed to have a look of the kind of history that is being taught to Pakistani school children. The text books approved by Punjab government on compulsory ‘Pakistan Studies’ (there is no subject like history that is taught) were revealing. Hatred of the West, Jews and Hindus was the constant theme.

This is the staple hate diet on which post Zia Ul Haq generation has been brought up. These are not madrassas, but regular government  schools.   

In 1988, this was taken up at the Prime Minister’s level. In the  Islamabad declaration issued by Rajiv Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto, it was agreed that both countries would revise their textbooks to remove biases. But soon thereafter both the prime ministers lost power and the whole issue was forgotten.

It was only revived in 2004 under General Pervez Musharraf.

Two well known Pakistani scholars, Prof A H Nayyar and Prof Parvez Hoodhboy, however, have been working on this for a while. But immense opposition has ensured that very little progress has been made.

In any case even if the curriculum reform takes place now, the results will be visible only after 20 years. What is the world to do now with Zia’s fanatic children? With over 40 per cent of Pakistan’s population under 25, there’s a huge pool of ready to use Jihadis in Pakistan.  

This issue of the effects of this indoctrination was taken up with the Director Near East and South Asia at the US National Security Council, Ms Sandy Charles on 17 July 1991. I had pleaded with her that in another 20 years time as this generation come of age, it will threaten not just India but the US as well.


The reason for this elaborate history lesson is to drive home the point that fanaticism in Pakistan is

•    Widespread
•    Deep rooted
•    There is no organised effort to counter the ideology of hate.
 
What it also means is that even if an odd terrorist leader is prosecuted or killed in drone attack, the Jihad mentality will survive.

The answer that is staring at the US is: isolate, contain.

But with their single point agenda of either election victory in 2012 or getting out of Afghanistan honourably and not fleeing from an embassy roof top (like Saigon), the American’s are shoring up trouble for future.

In words of Prof Graham T Allison, time is ticking, and the question is not whether but when Jihadis use a nuclear device. While that question may engage future researchers, one thing can be foretold: it will have ‘made in Pakistan’ written all over it.  

At the time that one Faisal (the Pakistani behind the botched Times Square bomb plot) earned notoriety, another Faisal, a young doctor from the Kashmir valley topped the All India Civil Services Examination.


Many years ago, Dr Yusuf Shalwale, a doctor of Kashmiri origin  based in the US, was a special invitee in Pune to demonstrate his surgical skills. He is a world renowned surgeon. Must Kashmiris look at Pakistan for inspiration or role models? 

It was in 1993/94, while visiting Kupwara, I had suggested that the best way to deal with Kashmir unrest on long term basis was to empower the locals with education. As a small beginning, the local army brigade started an English medium nursery school at Trehgam.

The local commander was sceptical and was very doubtful getting students: after all, Trehgam is the hotbed of Kashmiri separatism,  being the birth place of Maqbul Butt (founder of JKLF) who was hanged for murdering an IB officer in the 1980s (we had Indira Gandhi at the helm of affairs then).

Visiting the place next year, an enthusiastic staff officer told me that the primary school was a grand success and they actually had to turn away many children. Even known separatists were keen to get their children admitted in the army run school.


Today the army is running  45 Army Goodwill Schools that impart quality education to 6,799 students and provide employment to 346 teachers. Two Mega Army Goodwill Public Schools, one each at Pahalgam and Rajouri, with modern infrastructure / facilities have started functioning while 324 Community Development Centres --with Television and Direct to Home disc-antennas, telephones, library and indoor games --have been established in Jammu and Kashmir .

In future there will be many Faisals produced by the valley to enrich the state and the country.

A recent national sample survey also brought out that poverty levels in Kashmir, at 3 per cent, are the lowest in the country. It can be safely said that the socio-economic roots of separatism have been addressed, and so has been the violence by locals.

What passes for Kashmir insurgency today is basically spill over of the Pakistani social unrest into India in the form of Jihad. The Jihadi stronghold today is not valley but Muridke (headquarters of LeT) near Lahore.

But while the insurgency is on its last legs in Kashmir, peace will continue to elude us since the ideology of separatism is not being challenged by the politicians of both the ruling party and opposition.


In a memorable speech in parliament some years ago,  Omar Abdullah had spoken of his identity as a Kashmiri, a Muslim and an Indian. It is time for him to take the lead and take on the likes of Mirwaiz or Geelani on this front.

The armed forces can reduce violence, even help in development, but the political battle has to be fought by the nationalist Kashmiris.  The time has come for them to take on the separatists and Pakistani sympathisers head on.


As a welcome sign, the so called ‘national media’ (that in India means Delhi based English medium media) has stopped the practice of lionising the gulli Mohalla leaders. The window of opportunity may not last too long before an insecure Pak muddies the water with another terror strike or a one novel wonder author comes  out with another 40 page essay justifying separatism.

The Indian and Kashmiri leadership must strike while the iron is hot.

And for God’s sake, let’s  ignore the American busybodies for once.

Colonel (Dr) Anil Athale has studied the insurgencies in Kashmir, North East, Sri Lanka, Northern Ireland, South Africa and Chhatisgarh. As a former infantry officer he has also participated in counter insurgency operations. He is a former fellow of the USI, Delhi.

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