In past couple of weeks, pictures of school and college going Kashmiri girls and women pelting stones at Indian security forces went viral. These young women were reportedly from various government colleges of Kashmir and were protesting against alleged injustices by the Indian army and security forces.

The pictures made it to international media where it was argued that India has virtually lost Kashmir as the next generation of Kashmiris, including girls, were ready for pitched battles. In response, government was reported to be planning to raise women police battalion to take these women stone-pelters.

However, before the women policemen could take them on, Hizbul Mujahideen has cautioned the women to stay away from the stone-pelting. It should be noted that the current phase of violence in Kashmir was triggered after Burhan Wani, the commander of Hizbul Mujahideen was killed by security forces.

Zakir Musa, the man who succeeded Burhan Wani in the terrorist organisation, has released an audio message asking women to abandon stone-pelting and stay at home.

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In fact, he virtually went on to blame the young women for the mess Kashmir is in today because they were not wearing burqa while pelting stones.

“I want to tell the sisters that whatever you are doing is against Sharia law, as pelting stones without being in veil is un-Islamic. In Islam, there are no such protests and that is why Allah is punishing us in the form of occupation (sic),” he is reported to have said in his message.

He further told the women that their brothers (terrorists like him) were alive and thus women did not need to indulge in such acts that were against Islam.

Zakir Musa had earlier in March asked people to throw stone at security forces “for Islam”.

“Whenever we are fighting with gun or throwing rocks, this should not be for nationalism but for Islam,” he had said back then. Perhaps he failed to clarify back then that he was addressing only men and not women, for whom he has additional instructions like staying at home or at least wearing a burqa.

The latest statement by the terrorist organisation has once again confirmed that the current “agitation” in Kashmir is not for something called “Kashmiriyat” but for “Islam”. It is more about religion than politics, as an earlier article on OpIndia had argued.