According to a 2011 [[Hindustan Times]] story, his sister died in 1994 after suffering a heart attack during a police raid at the age of 14."},"parts":[{"template":{"target":{"wt":"efn","href":"./Template:Efn"},"params":{"1":{"wt":"According to [[Patrick French]], a British writer who interviewed him in 2007, his home was raided sometime following the beginning of the [[insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir]], where his 18 year old sister was thrown out of a window. She broke her spine as a result and died four years later at the age of 22.{{Cite book |last=French |first=Patrick |url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=bf48JIIoLVoC&pg=PA9&source=kp_read_button&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&gboemv=1&ovdme=1&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false |title=India: A Portrait |date=2011-01-27 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-0-14-194700-6 |pages=332 |language=en |quote=When separatists started to fight Indian rule in Kashmir, the security forces arrived. Police who were searching for militants raided Shakeel's home, and threw his beloved eighteen-year-old sister Shareefa out of an upstairs window. She broke her spine, and died from her injuries four years later.}} According to [[Free Press Kashmir]], which interviewed him in 2021, his sister was thrown down a flight of stairs in 1986 when she was 12, becoming bed-ridden as a result, and died in 1992 at the age of 18. According to a 2011 [[Hindustan Times]] story, his sister died in 1994 after suffering a heart attack during a police raid at the age of 14."}},"i":0}}]}"> [a] Bhat dropped out of school as a teenager, and in 1991, at the age of 13, he joined a Kashmiri militant group called Al-Umar-Mujahideen, [8] [11] which he remained part of until his arrest in 1994. [13] [1] He was arrested and spent three years in prison, during which he was tortured and subjected to electric shocks. A nail was driven through his jaw. [14] [15] He remained under police surveillance after his release. An injury to his right arm as a result of the torture had left him unable to lift anything, and he has relied on his brothers to support him since then, saying he feels as if he is 110 years old. [16] He lives in Srinagar, where he began participating in demonstrations in 1997. Due to his angry look, he was often photographed by journalists. He took part in protests against the Indian Army, Israel, Pope Benedict XVI, Salman Rushdie, and the cartoons caricaturing Muhammad. [17]
Speaking to The Guardian about his photograph becoming viral on the internet, he said:
I am not happy with people joking about me or making me into a cartoon, but I have more important things to think about. My protests are for those Muslims who cannot go out onto the streets to cry out against injustice. This is my duty and I believe Allah has decided this for me. [1]
According to Free Press Kashmir, by 2021 he had "intermittently spent 24 years and 4 months" in different prisons across India and had 276 FIRs against him. [10] He married in 2020. [10]
He was featured in numerous blogs and articles by Christopher Hitchens, [18] Kathleen Parker, [19] Michelle Malkin, [20] and others. On various blogs, he was photoshopped as Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler or as an opera singer. [21] [22] His picture has also been printed on T-shirts, posters, mouse pads, and beer mugs. [5]
Jammu and Kashmir was a region formerly administered by India as a state from 1952 to 2019, constituting the southern and southeastern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has been the subject of a dispute between India, Pakistan and China since the mid-20th century. The underlying region of this state were parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, whose western districts, now known as Azad Kashmir, and northern territories, now known as Gilgit-Baltistan, are administered by Pakistan. The Aksai Chin region in the east, bordering Tibet, has been under Chinese control since 1962.
Hizbul Mujahideen, also spelled Hizb-ul-Mujahidin, is a Pakistan-affiliated Islamist militant organisation that has been engaged in the Kashmir insurgency since 1989. It aims to separate Kashmir from India and merge it with Pakistan, and is thus one of the most important players in the region as it evolved the narrative of the Kashmir conflict by steering the struggle away from nationalism and towards jihadism.
The Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) is a formerly armed, political separatist organisation active in both the Indian-administered and Pakistani-administered territories of Kashmir. It was founded by Amanullah Khan, with Maqbool Bhat also credited as a co-founder. Originally a militant wing of the Azad Kashmir Plebiscite Front, the organization officially changed its name to the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front in Birmingham, England on 29 May 1977; from then until 1994 it was an active Kashmiri militant organization. The JKLF first established branches in several cities and towns of the United Kingdom and other countries in Europe, as well as in the United States and across the Middle East. In 1982, it established a branch in the Pakistani-administered territory of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, and by 1987, it had established a branch in the Indian-administered Kashmir Valley.
Baramulla, also known as Varmul in Kashmiri, is a City and municipality of the Baramulla district of the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir in the disputed Kashmir region. It is also the administrative headquarters of the Baramulla district, located on the banks of the River Jhelum downstream from Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir. The town was earlier known as gateway of Kashmir, serving as the major distribution centre for goods arriving in Kashmir valley through the Jhelum valley cart road. It is located within the Kashmir Valley on the foothills of the Pir Panjal Range.
The Hazratbal Shrine, popularly called Dargah Sharif, is a Sufi dargah and mosque, located in Hazratbal locality of Srinagar, in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. The site contains a relic, Moi-e-Muqqadas, believed to be the hair of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It is situated on the northern bank of the Dal Lake in Srinagar, and is considered to be Kashmir's holiest Muslim shrine.
Yasin Malik is a Kashmiri separatist leader and former militant who advocates the separation of Kashmir from both India and Pakistan. He is the chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front, which originally spearheaded armed militancy in the Kashmir Valley. Malik renounced violence in 1994 and adopted peaceful methods to come to a settlement of the Kashmir conflict. In May 2022, Malik pleaded guilty to charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against the state, and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Mohammad Yusuf Shah, commonly known as Syed Salahuddin, is the head of Hizbul Mujahideen, a terrorist organization operating in Kashmir. He also heads the United Jihad Council, a Pakistan-based conglomeration of jihadist militant groups sponsored by the ISI, with the goal of merging Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan.
Maqbool Bhat (1938–1984) was a Kashmiri separatist leader, who went to Pakistan and founded the National Liberation Front (NLF), which was a precursor to the present day Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF). He is called the "father of the Nation of Kashmir" Baba-e-Qaum by the locals. Bhat carried out multiple attacks in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. He was arrested and sentenced to a double death sentence. He was hanged on 11 February 1984 in Tihar Jail in Delhi.
Al-Badr is an Islamist militant group operating in the Kashmir region. The group was allegedly formed by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in June 1998. It is believed the group was encouraged by the ISI to operate independently from their previous umbrella group, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM). Prior to the group's separation from HM, they participated in the fighting in Afghanistan in 1990 as part of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's Hizb-l-Islami (HIG) alongside other anti-Soviet Afghan mujihadeen. India and the United States have declared it a terrorist organisation and banned it. Pakistan has long been a difficult and disruptive neighbor of Afghanistan, increasing Afghanistan's instability by providing intelligence, weapons and security to the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network. But now Pakistan is facing strong backlash both domestically and internationally against its policy of militant sponsorship.
The Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir or Jamaat-e-Islami Jammu and Kashmir (JIJK) is an Islamic political party based in the city of Srinagar in the Indian administered territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is distinct from the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind. The organisation's stated position on the Kashmir conflict is that Kashmir is a disputed territory and the issue must be sorted as per UN or through tripartite talks between India, Pakistan and representatives of Kashmir.
In 1989, Rubaiya Sayeed, the daughter of the then Indian Home Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, was kidnapped by Kashmiri separatist militants in Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir. The kidnappers demanded the release of five jailed members of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in exchange for Sayeed's release. The Indian government headed by V. P. Singh of the Janata Dal party, with outside support from the BJP, agreed to the demands and induced the state government to release the jailed militants. In 2004, the JKLF admitted to having carried out the kidnapping, and the court case is ongoing. In July 2022, Rubaiya identified Yasin Malik, one of the key leaders of JKLF at that time, as one of her kidnappers.
Mohammad Abbas Ansari was a separatist political leader and a well known Shia Muslim scholar, reformer, preacher and cleric from Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir. He was known for his religious lectures and as a Kashmiri separatist, ex-chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, also founder and chairman of the Ittihadul Muslimeen also known as Jammu & Kashmir Ittihadul Muslimeen (JKIM), a Kashmiri nationalist Shia separatist political party which aims for Shi'a–Sunni unity in Kashmir & independence of Jammu and Kashmir from India through peaceful struggle. He is considered a moderate and has called for an end to violence in that region. He is Succeeded by his son Maulana Masroor Abbas Ansari.
Human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir range from mass killings, enforced disappearances, torture, rape and sexual abuse to political repression and suppression of freedom of speech. The Indian Army, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), and Border Security Personnel (BSF) have been accused of committing severe human rights abuses against Kashmiri civilians. According to Seema Kazi, militant groups have also been held responsible for similar crimes, but the vast majority of abuses have been perpetrated by the armed forces of the Indian government.
Masarat Alam Bhat is a Kashmiri Islamist activist and a political separatist leader of Jammu and Kashmir. He is currently serving as the chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Muslim League, and also serves as the interim chairman of Geelani faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference.
Qasim Faktoo is a Kashmiri separatist and militant, serving life imprisonment for the murder of Hriday Nath Wanchoo. He had been among the earliest members of Hizbul Mujahideen.
Burhan Wani was the leader of Hizbul Mujahideen, an Islamist terrorist organization and terrorist group of the Kashmir conflict. He had become a popular figure amongst the local Kashmiri populace, having done so primarily through a strong social media presence, and was responsible for moulding the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir into a youth-oriented movement. Wani was a terrorist leader and had reportedly recruited numerous foot-soldiers through his personal efforts.
Zakir Rashid Bhat was the commander of Hizbul Mujahideen after the killing of Burhan Wani and Sabzar Bhat, who were the former commanders of the same outfit. He later became the chief of Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind.
Qazi Nisar was the Mirwaiz of South Kashmir. He was a founding member of the Muslim United Front (MUF) that contested the rigged 1987 Legislative Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir, and Ummat e Islami. He was a vocal advocate of freedom for Kashmiris.
Sabzar Ahmed Bhat was a Kashmiri militant, who was the area commander of the militant organisation Hizbul Mujahideen. He was killed in an encounter by the police on 26 May 2017 at Tral.
Mohammad Ashraf Khan, chiefly known as Ashraf Sehrai or just as Sehrai, was a Kashmiri separatist leader and chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, a Kashmiri separatist political party. He was elected chairman through a first-ever election conducted in the history of Hurriyat when Syed Ali Shah Geelani relinquished office due to his deteriorating health.
Shakeel aged all of thirteen, decided to join other young men and go to Pakistan for military training. He was so small that he had to be carried on an older boy's shoulders when he went over the mountains. In Muzaffarabad on the Pakistani side of the border, he was taken to a snow-covered training camp run by the ISI in conjunction with the militant group Al-Umar mujahideen. Armed with an AK-47, he returned to a safe house in Srinagar, hoping — in what now seems a very impractical way — to drive out the Indian troops. 'I thought Kashmir should have the right to self-determination, he said. Shakeel not an effective militant. When I asked him how many people he had killed, he looked embarrassed. 'I gave scares, but I never killed anyone. I couldn't.
When separatists started to fight Indian rule in Kashmir, the security forces arrived. Police who were searching for militants raided Shakeel's home, and threw his beloved eighteen-year-old sister Shareefa out of an upstairs window. She broke her spine, and died from her injuries four years later.