ISLAMIC TERRORISM: THE WAR ON INNOCENTS

An incident of 22 April 2025 in Pahalgam, a tourist destination in Jammu and Kashmir, shook the entire country. Twenty -six people were brutally shot and seventeen others were injured. According to eyewitnesses, the attackers asked their names, religious identity and then read Kalma before killing the victims. Reports have also been claimed that the attackers were raising the slogan “Bismillah” while running away from the scene.

- Gajendra Singh

It was neither a case of looting nor indiscriminate violence-rather a target, ideology-inspired terrorist act, which tried to justify cruelty with religious symbolism. Do such acts represent Islamic terrorism? That is the uncomfortable but necessary question we must confront.

In the last decade, many terrorists have emerged in Kashmir. These terrorists not only belonged to the special religion (Muslim) but they also got assistance from the local Muslims in the area. Most of the Muslim terrorists are related to organizations like Hizbul Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (Let), and The Resistance Front (TRF). Burhan Wani and Riyaz Naiku (Hizbul Mujahideen), Zakir Musa (Ansar Gajwat-ul-Hind), and Abbas Sheikh and Basit Ahmed Dar (TRE) played an important role in the recruitment of local youth and promotion of militant ideology.