Controversial journalist Barkha Dutt, a respected member of the media fraternity who has been accused of undermining India’s national security during the Kargil War, met two protesting female students of Jamia Milia Islamia in an obvious attempt to whitewash the violence that was unleashed by Muslim mobs. The students she met were Ladeeda Farzana, Aysha Renna, and Shaheen. In a video that had gone viral on social media, the ‘sheroes’ could be seen ‘saving’ Shaheen from the Police.

In a viral video from #Jamia we saw two young women save a male friend from police lathis by giving him cover. We also saw the same women standing atop a roof raising hands in another viral image. I meet Ladeeda Farzana & Ayesha Renna, sheroes of Jamia & Shaheen whom they saved pic.twitter.com/q8qfvIDMFT — barkha dutt (@BDUTT) December 16, 2019

Upon discovering their identities, ‘internet sleuths’ proceeded to dig into the individuals that were mentioned to develop some understanding about their conduct on social media. As they say, the internet never forgets. People discovered that Aysha Renna had called India ‘fascist’ because the terrorist Yakub Memon was hanged till death after he was convicted for his involvement in the Mumbai Blasts that killed hundreds of people.

The other girl in Barkha Dutt’s photo was Ladeeda Farzana, who is presumably, Ladeeda Shakhaloon. Ladeeda Shakhaloon also finds mention in this Outlook report where she is again lionized by the reporter. The Outlook reported, ““We started the protest from our hostel at around 7. For half-an-hour, there were just four of us,” says Sakhaloon, adding the number gradually swelled as they went around visiting other hostels, mobilizing students. By the time the girls climbed up the wall to address other students, there were over a thousand students who had amassed in protest. “If we don’t protest, who will? My parents have always said that you must fight injustice. When my father saw that photograph, all he said was, ‘You are on the right path,’” says Sakhaloon, who already has a BA degree in Economics.”

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Now, who is Ladeeda Shakhaloon (probably the Ladeeda mentioned by Barkha Dutt) that she is being lionized to this extent? Her facebook profile provides great evidence to her worldview. In one of her posts, she openly gives a call to Jihad. She says that people should “learn about our ‘Jihad’.”

The mention of Badr, Uhd and Karbala is significant as these are battles where the early Muslims had scored decisive victories against the ‘Kaafirs’. The Battle of Badr was fought by Prophet Muhammad himself and is considered to be won by Allah’s divine intervention by Muslims. The Battle of Uhud was the second military encounter between the ‘Kaafir’ Meccans and the prophet. The battle of Karbala was fought between the Second Umayyad Caliph Yazid the first and grandson of the Islamic prophet. This battle ultimately sealed the Shia-Sunni divide.

She ends the post with “La ilaha illa allah, Muhammad rasoolullah.” Given the mention of the three places along with Jihad is ample evidence that Ladeeda Sakhaloon’s call for Jihad cannot be whitewashed as a mere non-violent struggle or spiritual struggle. Moreover, the Hudybiyyah she mentions is a peace treaty signed by Prophet Muhammad with the Qurayshi tribe which he later broke and went to war against them. Therefore, quite clearly, Ladeeda Salakhoon is drawing an analogy with breaking a peace treaty with ‘Kaafirs’ and going to war against them. This cannot be dubbed as a call for spiritual Jihad or non-violent Jihad in any manner whatsoever.

In another post of hers from April 2018, she gives ‘middle fingers’ to India. This was soon after the unfortunate rape and murder of six-year-old girl in Kathua, Kashmir.

Aysha Renna’s worldview should also be now of great suspect as she has shared posts of the same individual in her own timeline and was ‘tagged’ in the post where the call for Jihad was made.

Furthermore, Ladeeda Sakhaloon and Aysha Renna are also the face of the Jamia Milia Islamia University protests and were the individuals in the photo from the protests that have been labeled ‘iconic’ by many ‘intellectuals’ on social media. And, again, we have the Outlook report to thank for it. In the picture below, Ladeeda Sakhaloon is at the center and Aysha Renna on her left. To her right is one woman called Chanda Yadav.

One Facebook user with the username ‘Baasie‘, another student of Jamia according to his/her profile, shared Ladeeda’s call for Jihad.

Ladeeda’s call for Jihad was also shared by one Anshad from Kerala whose profile appeared to confirm that Ladeeda Sakhaloon is indeed the Ladeeda Farzana mentioned by Barkha Dutt.

Twitter user @WrongDoc dug out more details on the jihadist inclination Ladeeda has.

Thus, quite clearly, we see that the faces of the Jamia protests are people who are extremists in their ideologies and openly give a call to Jihad. These are the individuals who are seeking to be normalized by the ‘secular camp’. It is also important to remember that slogans such as ‘Hinduon Se Azadi‘ were raised at Jamia Nagar the day mob violence ravaged Delhi.

Given the extremist ideologies of the individuals concerned, the investigative authorities need to thoroughly investigate whether any Jamia students were involved in raising those slogans. Furthermore, it also needs to be investigated whether Jamia students with extremist ideologies instigated those violent protests even if they didn’t directly participate in it. It is also pertinent to note that in Ladeeda’s call for Jihad, she had tagged others who belong to the Jamia Milia Islamia University. It emphasizes the necessity of investigating the radicalization of the Muslim youth in top universities.