Last March, during an Umrah visit to Saudi Arabia, I was disturbed after witnessing the mutaween (religious police) forcing people to pray and harassing women to cover up. Meanwhile earlier this year, Tehran announced that the city’s Gashte Ershad (the “guidance patrol”) had their mandate expanded. The city’s police chief, General Hossein Sajedi Nia, stated that “noise pollution, unsafe driving, disturbing girls and incorrect hijab” would be punished. This is, reportedly, a common announcement before the summer months, but this year the 7,000-strong force would be undercover with powers to enforce dress codes and even impound cars if occupants are not sufficiently covered. Clearly, they had not received the memo highlighting the Quranic passage upholding that there was no compulsion in religion. The situation appears no different with secular fanatics. While the religious police in Muslim lands are busy enforcing religious rules, the secular police clearly don’t want to be outdone. Years ago, I came face to face with secular liberal fanatics at the Swissotel, The Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey. As I completed my lap in the swimming pool, I caught a glimpse of what appeared to be my wife being escorted out of the pool by hotel staff. We were on our honeymoon, minding our own business, when unbeknownst to us some political drama had been brewing in the background. Two other patrons at the five-star hotel had complained to the pool staff about my wife. The staff asked my wife if she could leave the pool. My wife, who by nature is much more passive than I, had obliged. I climbed out of the pool, rushed over to her to find out what had transpired. “They are saying that I am not dressed appropriately,” said my wife. I made my way to the counter and inquired as to what the issue was. The one in charge appeared worried and clearly did not want a confrontation. One of them sheepishly informed me that someone had complained about my wife’s swim attire. Not one to back off, I...

The vicious cycle of curfew, strikes, nocturnal raids and indiscriminate use of force in India-held Kashmir continues unabated for the fourth week. On July 8, 2016 government forces killed Burhan Wani, a young rebel commander in his early 20s in Kashmir’s Kokernag area. A dapper, swashbuckling leader, who efficiently leveraged social media, Burhan’s death innervated Kashmiri youth, who poured out on streets in thousands to express their anger. Despite a strict curfew imposed by the government in Srinagar, close to 300,000 people attended Burhan’s funeral prayers. Reports suggested that mourners poured in from far-off hamlets — on bicycles, tractors, load carriers, motorcycles and on foot. Fifty back-to-back janazas of the slain rebel were offered. Earlier this year when Mufti Muhammad Sayed, the then chief minister of India-held J&K died, less than 3,000 people attended his funeral. The contrast could not have been starker for the person in the thick of this all — Mufti’s daughter and the current chief minister, Mehbooba Mufti. More than 50 boys have been killed and thousands injured during three weeks of intense clashes in IHK. At the centre of public anger, Ms Mufti has been booed recently as she made a rare public appearance. Her ministers have been stoned in several places. In fact, a photo-op attempt with the kin of a few boys killed in police firing, resulted in her being dubbed as the ‘condolence queen’ — someone who watches hysterically as young kids get shot at and killed wantonly. More than 50 boys have been killed and thousands injured in Kashmir during the latest upsurge in violence. The police there aided by the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Indian army has used live ammunition to break up protests. The use of ‘non-lethal’ pellet guns to control crowds has proven especially disastrous. Scores of young men have lost their eyesight and hundreds others have sustained serious injuries due to the ‘pellet terror’. The aim to inflict maximum...

Popular Unrest has started breathing down the necks of main stream politicians. Their space in South Kashmir is shrinking. On July 31 National Conference (NC) leader from Anantnag, Iftikhar Hussain Misger, quit his party and pledged support for the “freedom struggle”. A replay of early 1990s when there were public denouncements by mainstream political workers. Chairman Hurriyat Conference (G) Syed Ali Geelani on August 1, 2016 defied the restrictions to lead a ‘pro-freedom and anti-India graffiti’ protest outside his Hyderpora residence. Police have detained dozens of Hurriyat leaders and senior members to stop them from holding anti-India and pro-freedom protests in their respective areas. As the state continues its oppression against Kashmiri Muslims, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti watches on; elected to represent a local Kashmiri, she sits and watches the daily death of a Kashmiri. A trust badly betrayed. Mehbooba has turned into Mother Teresa and has gone global in her advice to the Kashmiri people. It is unfortunate that the CM should see solution in Economy and Education and not in the promised vote of Kashmiri people, waiting to vote on the Delhi agreement with Srinagar made on 27 October 1947. Present education system is a failed system. So is the political dispensation that has failed in mainstreaming an army of unemployed youth, who gradually age and become unemployable. Mehbooba has said that violence had been rejected globally as a means to achieve political objectives and has urged for a dialogue. Dialogue of course is a solution. We have already moved from dialogue to a programme under the supervision of the United Nations. She should advocate remainder part performance by the Government of Kashmir at Srinagar and the Government of Delhi as provided under UN mechanism to prefer a free vote under UN supervision to either endorse the temporary agreement or to reject it. It will be helpful if Mehbooba stopped her cavalcade and addressed the people who...

Former foreign secretary Salman Bashir said on Thursday that Pakistan did not have any option for strategic partnership, except China, and now it was looking towards Russia too. Speaking at roundtable titled “Troubled Neighbourhood: Pakistan’s Options” organised by the Centre for Research and Security Studies (CRSS), he said that Pakistan’s civil service structure had collapsed. Indian bureaucracy was working efficiently, but Pakistan’s top bureaucrats had rotten. Pakistani politicians have not even thought about this issue, he said. About the Kashmir issue, Bashir said that Pakistani politicians and Foreign Office were talking the same old things. He said that Pakistan should highlight the human rights violations and the use of pellet guns by the Indian security forces in the Indian-Occupied Kashmir. This is a violation of Geneva Conventions as well. “Pakistan has been unable to unlock geo-economics because it has acted as a security state, but that is true for India as well. They keep spending enormous amounts on defence,” he said. “We as Pakistanis have done a lot, suffered a lot. Pakistan has tried to match external expectations, but it’s time to get out of that schoolboy mindset and be on our own,” he added. Dr Moeed Yusuf, associate vice president at the Asia Centre, earlier said that strategic location had only brought conflict to Pakistan. He said that Pakistan had done only a few things to broaden its alliances. It did a fantastic job to strike a balance in relations with Iran and Saudi Arabia. He said that Pakistan did feel wronged and worried about the world tilting in favour of India. He said that information revolution had made the soft power much more important than ever. He said that Pakistan’s image remained smeared by negative things despite being a front-line ally of the United States. He said that Pakistan’s policy was reactive. He said that India was far better than Pakistan in terms of narrative, geo-economics, realpolitik, and substitute...