The foreign film that plunged J&K into terrorism!

The lion Of Desert: A hollywood film The Lion Of Desert caused a fire in Jammu and Kashmir. terrorism has also spread a lot.

History has witnessed that the fire of terrorism that started burning in kashmir - SRINAGAR/JAMMU' target='_blank' title='jammu and kashmir-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW'>jammu and kashmir with the merger with india has not been extinguished to date. From time to time water is also sprinkled on this fire, but the fire keeps smoldering inside...suddenly a flame rises and starts blazing again in the entire Kashmir. But can any film have such an impact that kashmir - SRINAGAR/JAMMU' target='_blank' title='jammu and kashmir-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW'>jammu and kashmir, which remained calm for some time, starts burning because of a film? Can any foreign film have such an impact that it can inspire terrorists in kashmir - SRINAGAR/JAMMU' target='_blank' title='jammu and kashmir-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW'>jammu and kashmir to take up arms? The answer is yes. There is a film, which was not being released in India. But after the decision of the then chief minister farooq abdullah, the film was released and due to it terrorism raised its head, which has not been crushed till now. We are talking about a hollywood film The Lion of the Desert.

This is the year 1981. A film was made in hollywood at that time. Its name was The lion of the Desert. The film was based on a fighter Omar Mukhtar, who fought a guerilla war in libya against the entire army of Italian fascist ruler Mussolini. After this war which lasted from 1911 to 1931, Omar Mukhtar was caught and hanged by Mussolini's army. There was a dialogue in the climax of this film starring Anthony Quinn -

"We will never surrender. We will either win or die. You will have to fight for your future generations."

Then Libyan ruler Mohammed Gaddafi funded the making of this film. But this film was banned in Italy. This film was not able to be released in india either. But kashmir - SRINAGAR/JAMMU' target='_blank' title='jammu and kashmir-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW'>jammu and kashmir chief minister farooq abdullah was very impressed with this film. He thought that after watching this film, the people of kashmir valley would lean towards his father Sheikh Abdullah and an anti-India atmosphere would be created in the entire valley. Farooq Abdullah will take advantage of this and then indira gandhi will be forced to compromise with farooq abdullah at the centre and Farooq Abdullah's chair will be saved.

When Farooq shared this plan with his advisors, his advisors said that the gamble may backfire and that Farooq should not let the film be released. Farooq's supporters advised that after the release of this film, the people of the valley will start comparing the two lions i.e. Libya's lion Omar Mukhtar, and Kashmir's lion Sheikh Abdullah and this may cause people to distance themselves from Sheikh Abdullah. But Farooq did not listen to the advice. In january 1984, this film was released in Srinagar's Regal Cinema. The dialogues of the film were in english and were beyond the understanding of most Kashmiris. But the viewers saw that Omar Mukhtar never backed down from the cause for which he was fighting.

So people started comparing. People started remembering the agreements that Sheikh Abdullah had made with the central governments, whether it was with Nehru or Indira. They felt that their leader had deceived them about the cause for which they were thrown into the war, freedom. The crowd that came out after watching the film and which was influenced by this film, instead of going home, headed towards Mujahid Manzil. Mujahid Manzil means the office of the National Conference, the party formed by Sheikh Abdullah and his son Farooq Abdullah. The crowd pelted stones at the office and tore the life-size posters of Sheikh Abdullah. When this was not enough, the crowd bought posters of Sheikh Abdullah by paying money and then either tore or burnt them publicly.

One name in the crowd that watched this film was that of Yasin Malik. Senior journalists ashwini Bhatnagar and RC Ganjoo write in their book Farooq of kashmir that terrorist Yasin Malik, who formed the kashmir - SRINAGAR/JAMMU' target='_blank' title='jammu and kashmir-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW'>jammu and kashmir Liberation Front, was a student then. The day Yasin Malik saw the film, it got imprinted in his mind. Yasin Malik had said about this film-

'I and many youths like me were influenced by this film and Omar Mukhtar. We felt that Sheikh Abdullah and his family were never with the Kashmiri sentiments. They were only trying to save their power and make wealth. After watching The lion of the Desert, I and many youths like me started moving towards militancy.''

After watching the film, the youth of the valley felt that armed rebellion was the only way to freedom in Kashmir. Therefore, many youths joined Jamaat and JKLF. Many youths crossed the border to get training in handling weapons. They took training and when they returned, they had dangerous weapons like AK 47 in their hands, which they knew how to use very well. And once this process started, it was unstoppable. After that, it is history how governor Jagmohan imposed Governor's rule in Jammu and Kashmir and the rigging in the assembly elections that followed gave birth to those terrorists, due to which there has never been peace in kashmir - SRINAGAR/JAMMU' target='_blank' title='jammu and kashmir-Latest Updates, Photos, Videos are a click away, CLICK NOW'>jammu and kashmir till date. That story some other time.