Hizbul posters in valley ask ‘outsiders’ to leave

‘Outsiders’ have been told to vacate shops, houses they have been occupying for long.

New Delhi: Posters and pamphlets attributed to the terrorist organisation Hizbul Mujahideen, have started appearing in South Kashmir, especially in Kulgam and Pulwama, asking “outsiders” to leave the valley by vacating their shops and residences they have been occupying for many years. Many of these establishments are occupied by “outsider” Muslims who came to the valley from different states years ago and have been peacefully carrying on with their businesses there. The intention, experts say, is to spread massive trouble in Kashmir by starting a religious and sectarian conflict. Similar developments took place around 27 years ago when in 1990, Pakistan-supported terror groups told the Kashmiri Pandit community to convert or leave the valley as staying there would mean embracing death.

Official sources say that the Hizbul is also using the public announcement system installed in mosques, to spread the message that homes and shops should not be given to “outsiders”. It is also asking Kashmiris to “take back” these establishments that they had rented out to the “outsiders”. These announcements are being made at an “irregular” time when the security forces are not in that particular area.

Heavy Army presence and restrictions on movements are not allowing the Hizbul cadre to come out from their hideouts to threaten the “outsiders” in person, so they are using posters, pamphlets and public address systems.

An official source monitoring the situation said: “Our concern is that once the security cover decreases, these threats will become more pronounced and visible, which is likely to lead to clashes between different groups and that might spread like wildfire across the valley. The terror groups want to make the removal of Article 370 a fight between the residents and the ‘outsiders’. If any such disturbance happens even at one place, it will flare up into a big issue across the state, with a possible repercussion across different states of India, after which it will become very hard for us to maintain peace in Kashmir.”

“A rumour is being spread that the grand plan behind abrogating Article 370 is to bring a demographic change in Kashmir and hence even the local man, who has nothing to do with terrorism, is worried that his livelihood will be impacted in the coming days as more and more ‘outsiders’ start settling in the state,” the officer quoted said.