This is not an Islamic Movement

they wrongly stuck an ‘Islamic’ label. Naturally, such a movement cannot win divine succour. One often hears Kashmiris lament that they are being crushed on two sides—by the Indian Army, on the one hand, and by militants, on the other. They also claim that when their jihad was launched, a good number of pious and well-meaning people were involved in it but that now all sorts of criminals and other bad elements have joined it, thereby giving it a bad name. This, I believe, is wholly incorrect. Sooner or later, guerilla war inevitably culminates in this sort of situation. At first, guerilla war might be led by people who appear good and sincere, but later, inevitably, all sorts of bad elements join it. This is what has happened in the case of Kashmir, too, where bad elements wrongly seek to give religious legitimacy to killing and looting by calling their actions an Islamic jihad. This is why I believe that this excuse has absolutely no positive purpose at all for the Kashmiri Muslims themselves. They must admit that the launching of their guerilla war was wrong from the very first day itself. To admit their mistake is the first step that they must take, and they must desist from heaping the blame on others for whatever has happened in Kashmir. Peace in Kashmir