South Asia Citizens Web

Last month, in a south Kashmir mosque, a fiery cleric in his raucous voice and shrill cries, defended former Hizbul commander Zakir Musa’s call for Islamic jihad. For the first time, a cleric, using his religious pedestal, was exhorting his audience to support Kashmir’s most wanted terrorist who recently aligned ideologically with al Qaeda. The audio recording of Mufti Shabir Ahmad Qasmi’s incendiary speech was widely circulated on instant online messaging platforms in the valley.

We are shocked and angered by the recent Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) demand that certain words be excised from a film based on the work of the Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen.

People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism condemns the killing of Amarnath pilgrims near Anantnag in Kashmir valley. This heinous crime has come at especially sensitive time for Kashmir and the rest of India. There is a real danger that in the aftermath of this attack both Kashmir and the rest of India get sucked into a vicious cycle of violence against innocent citizens.

We strongly condemn the firing on the bus carrying Amarnath Yatris which ended in the tragic death of seven pilgrims and injury to 18 others.

The recent unhindered violence at Baduria and adjoining Basirhat in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district was reportedly perpetrated by Muslim mobs, protesting against an objectionable post denigrating Islam, its Prophet and holy place by a Hindu teenager from the area. The violence not only weakens the democratic-secular narrative against rising Hindutva violence on Muslims, Christians and Dalits but also provides the RSS another opportunity to pose as the defender of “persecuted” Hindus.