Author: Udayan Namboodiri
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: September 3, 2001
What is the Lashkar e Jabbar? Does
it really exist? Reports of this unknown militant outfit threatening Muslim
women to wear burqas have caught the government's intelligence wing by
surprise. A section of intelligence officials believes it is a front of
the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT). Another point of view is that it is a new
hardcore Islamic outfit comprising Taliban elements who have broken free
of Punjabi domination in the LeT, Jaish e Mohammed and other groups. However,
till such time as some militants attached to this outfit are caught and
interrogated, neither of the two theories can gain credibility.
Previous attempts to force Kashmiri
women into accepting the burqa had failed. In 1990, the Jammu and Kashmir
Liberation Front and the Harkat-ul-Ansar (now known as Harkat ul Mujahideen)
had issued similar strictures. But there was widespread resentment as Kashmiri
society prides the independence its women enjoy. It, however, succeeded
somewhat in forcing segregation of the sexes in cinema theatres for sometime.
No militant group would like to
be publicly associated with such moves for fear of antagonising Kashmiris.
That is why the LeT had distanced itself from an attempt last September
to enforce burqas and to down shutters of beauty saloons in the Valley.
Another organisation Dukhtaran-e-Millat
has advocating compulsory burqa. The LeJ yesterday announced it was extending
the deadline for burqa use on the DeM's request.
Intelligence sources said LeT might
have floated the LeJ to spread confusion in the Valley. This LeT's ideological
moorings uphold a great degree of segregation of the sexes. But it is scared
of a backlash because burqas would never be accepted willingly by the Kashmiris.
So, it officially joins the moderate Hurriyat leaders and the Hizbul Mujahideen
in condemning the LeJ, but backs it covertly.
