“Religion is the opium of Masses”
Karl Marx
To quote Kamleshwar in “Kitne Pakistan”, religion has been used for furthering personal & selfish gains since time immemorial. If religion could act as a bridge between two individuals, Aurangjeb would not have murdered his brothers using divide between Sunni & Shia faith. He coloured his immoral & despicable acts of fratricide in the shades of a religion. He schemed with Shuja to kill Dara Shikoh & promised to spend his life at Mecca swearing on his faith. Having used religion as a leverage and not a pious faith, he rescinded on his promises & later killed Shuja and ascended to the throne.
If religion was a binding factor & not a device for scheming & plotting, the battlefield of Kurukshetra would not have been littered with dead bodies of Kauravs & Pandavs. If religion could bring together, the Nazis would not have called a fellow Russian Christian “Untermensch”.
The idea of dividing a nation based on religious lines was flawed to begin with. The evil plan was set in motion by partition of Bengal in 1905. Bearing testimony to age old misuse of religion, the British Empire was using religion to promote enmity in the populace to promote its selfish gains. Years of preaching and practicing religious differentiation led to one of the worst carnage during partition of India in 1947. The inglorious British Empire after 200 years of economic exploitation of India, drove the last nail on the coffin & left behind a country with religious fault lines. The nation has borne the brunt of the divisive policies sponsored by British & promoted by multitude of self-serving entities with lives of innocent people.
70 years down the lane, the murder of innocent civilians in Kashmir, in the name of religion serves as a reminder of how little we have learnt from our history. Pakistan on brink of economic collapse & its hands stained with bloods of Balochis is financing terrorism in Kashmir. The “Terror Factory” of Pakistan is luring Foreign Terrorists with money and pushing them to fight their unholy war in the name of “Jihad”. The so called “Jihadis” murder innocent children & women in Kashmir. These terrorists hide behind a façade of religion to justify their inhumane acts which are dastardly in eyes of all Gods & Humans alike.
India has always been a mosaic of different faiths & has celebrated its multiculturalism. As a nation, we have been home to many ethnicities and at least five religions have taken birth in our homeland. On the contrary, Pakistan has been shaped by religious hatred of one faith for other. The country which bases its claims on Kashmir’s religious ethnicity is burning with divide of Shias & Sunnis. The religious persecution of Ahmadias in Pakistan continues unabated & “Mujahirs” are still second class citizen of Pakistan. The country where fault lines in Islam run so deep, claims to be champions of Islam.
The rise of Pak sponsored militancy since 1988 has left the region bleeding. Pak based terrorists began with targeted minority killing & ethnic cleansing. Religion was only used as a tool to promote selfish gains of terrorists and Pakistan. Desecration of memorial of Maqbool Sherwani, “Lion of Kashmir” in 1988 by Pakistan reflected their desperation. The body of Maqbool Sherwani who died protecting his multicultural city of Baramulla in 1947 was riddled with 14 bullets by Pakistanis. Pakistani raiders had mutilated his body & crucified him before firing bullets on him. His body was nailed to a plank and kept hanging for several days. Maqbool Sherwani hailed “Victory for the unity of Sikhs, Hindus & Muslims” when he was brutally killed for believing in unity of all faiths & for his unflinching love for his motherland. Such sacrifices of heroes of Kashmir prove that hatred has no religion.
Unfortunately, our nation’s history stands testimony that individuals who professed religious unity such as Dara Shikoh, Mahatma Gandhi have fallen to machinations of hatred and selfishness. Recent supreme sacrifices of Lt Umar Fayaz & Rfn Aurangazeb are a reminder that love for the nation transcends all faiths. The blood of innocents of Kashmir of all faiths runs too thick to be washed away by any religion.
Kashmir is still facing scorch of religious intolerance seeded by British in India. Religion is being used to misguide Kashmiri youth to take up Arms against the state. The collusion of Pakistan and presence of Foreign Terrorists does not let them return to normalcy. As has been revealed by recent captive militants, Kashmiri Youth are not allowed to return to their homes even if they want to quit militancy. Harsh punishments including killing of family members is used to force Kashmiris to become terrorist or their collaborators. This vicious cycle of violence has been thrust upon the lives of Kashmiris. The recent targeted minority killing including female school teacher is another low in their long list of cowardly acts.
However, recruitment of locals & overt/ covert support received by terrorists points to a margin of society which has been swayed either under fear or corrupted by a wrong interpretation of religion. False narratives are being propagated by Pakistan to draw a divide between various faiths. Peace & prosperity of Kashmir is detrimental to Pakistan’s interests & it is using all means possible to prevent the UT of Jammu & Kashmir returning to normalcy.
Pakistan’s misadventures & religious indoctrination has cost the nation dearly and Kashmiris have paid the heaviest price. Armed Forces have paid for their lives to ensure peace & tranquility in Kashmir. As we witness, the nefarious attempts of dividing the KAUM of Kashmir on religious lines, one is reminded of “Taranah-e-Hindi” by Muhammad Iqbal:-
Mazhab nahin sikhata apas men bair rakhna,
Hindi hain ham, watan hai Hindostan hamara.
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