After 15-year long sect-based jihad, the people have become more aware about their sects and are trying to exclude others from the social and religious life. They are fighting over sectarian issues such as how to say one's prayers. According to Kashmiri fighters in Azad Kashmir who keep going and coming to the Valley of Kashmir, most of such conflicts are between the nascent Ahle Hadith [Salafi] community and the majority Brelvi Muslim population. The Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir have traditionally been Brelvi. However, the Ahle Hadith community has made inroads in the Kashmiri society after the Arabs started investing in religious causes all over the world in the late 1970s. Most of their investment went into building mosques. However, they never stopped anybody from saying his prayers in these mosques. After a 15-year long jihad, the Ahle Hadith community has relatively grown bigger and become assertive.
| "Assertive" in Islamist terminology means they'll blow you up if you don't see things their way... |
At many places they are already stopping people from saying their prayers in non-Ahle Hadith way. At other places they are talking about dividing the mosques into Brelvi and Ahle Hadith sections. According to reports in the press, three Lashkar-i-Taiba fighters were killed by the Hizbul Mujahideen fighters. Consequently, the Lashkar-i-Taiba retaliated and Hizbul Mujahideen commander Tariq Aziz was killed in a gunbattle in the village of Ratnipura earlier this month. Some of the Kashmiri commanders believe that sectarian feelings are playing an important role in the current infighting.
| Inother words, they can't get along with anyone, to include other hard boyz... |
The Kashmiri fighter groups fought among themselves in the early 1990s and lost hundreds of men. Some of them were the best fighters. However, the infighting in the early 1990s was a move to dominate the guerrilla war in Indian Jammu and Kashmir. Sectarianism did not play any role in that. Some fighter commanders believe the infighting may get intense because of the sectarian feelings. However, nobody appears to be interested in curbing the monster of sectarianism in Jammu and Kashmir.
| No more than they're interested in curbing it in Pakland proper... |
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