Khurshid Ahmad Khan, 38, a resident of Wangad village in the Kangan tehsil of Kashmir, feels dejected by the loss of lives ever since Israel attacked Iran.
“The war between Israel and Iran should stop. It has caused a lot of destruction in Iran. War is not in favour of either country,” he says.
Khan, a member of the Sunni sect of Islam, says Islamic and Muslim-majority countries should prevail on Israel to ensure the war stops and no more lives are lost.
In Kashmir, both the Sunni and Shia Muslims have condemned Israel’s attack. The current regime in Iran has drawn support from Muslim politicians, which is unlike some other political figures, such as the Iraqi President, late Saddam Hussein, who is seen as a divisive figure in Kashmir. One reason is that Iraq under Saddam invaded Iran and the war lasted for nearly eight years.
Nevertheless, in 2007, there were massive protests in Kashmir after Hussein’s execution by the United States.
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Aga Syed Muntazir Mehdi, a Shia leader from Budgam, says Israel’s actions against Iran are uncalled for. “Iran speaks against Western hegemony and wants a democratic order established in the world. Iran has advocated for the Palestinian cause, and that is why it has been attacked by Israel.”
Muntazir, however, also blames Saddam for the war on Iran. “The aggression launched on Iran lasted eight years after a Islamic revolution in the country,” he says.
In 1979, Iranians took to the streets seeking a regime change in what is still called the Islamic revolution, headed by Ayatollah Khomeini, who went into exile. The protests led to the overthrow of the country’s monarchial Mohamed Reza Shah Pahlavi government.
Kashmir’s Grand Mufti, Mufti Nasir-ul-Islam, strongly condemns the attack on Iran. “A hundred thousand people were killed in Gaza in Israel’s attacks. Hospitals were bombed, babies starved and killed. Now what is the pretext for the attack on Iran? That it has nuclear capability. But who is claiming this? Israel—which is the aggressor,” he says.
Earlier Chief Minister Omar Abdullah questioned Israel’s sudden attack, pointing out that just two months ago, Israel had said Iran was nowhere close to having a nuclear bomb.
In a post on X, former chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti also strongly condemned Israel, calling it “yet another brazen act by a state that appears to have gone rogue”. She also questioned the “silence of the global community, particularly Western powers led by the United States,” since the hostile actions began. She wrote, “…This silence amounts to tacit approval. In the case of India-Pakistan tensions, the U.S. never fails to assert that its intervention has been crucial in preventing escalation. Yet when it comes to Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza or its latest strike on Iran that same urgency is conspicuously missing. These glaring double standards endanger global peace and stability.”
Slamming the attack, National Conference Member of Parliament, Aga Ruhulla, also termed Israel as a “rogue” regime. “Israel has now bombed Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, and Iran, and still plays the victim… Attacking sovereign nations at will doesn’t make you powerful, it makes you a terrorist state…” Ruhulla said on social media.
While in Kashmir separate political constituencies are traditionally seen as the strongholds of Shias, there have been sectarian tensions in the past.
In January, political leaders from both communities urged people to maintain calm and avoid clashes after provocative comments against the companions of the Prophet Muhammad.
Nevertheless, in the last parliamentary elections held in 2024 in Kashmir, people cutting across sectarian lines voted against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ruling at the Centre.
Political commentator Dr Gul Mohammad Wani says, “After the eruption of armed militancy in Kashmir as well, the Shia-Sunni divide got blurred as other factors came into play. Shias and Sunnis were both in separatist as well as mainstream politics. In the parliament elections, Shia leader Aga Ruhulla got elected, but other identities had come into play, like that of the Paharis, Gujjars and West Pakistani refugees, wile the Shias and Sunnis felt equally marginalised.”
On the unanimous condemnation of Israel for attacking Iran, Gul Wani says that, in the past Kashmir, has seen strong mobilisations in favour of Palestine.
Prof MY Ganaie, head of the Department of History at Kashmir University, says tensions and past skirmishes between Shias and Sunnis were “influenced by the political elite” of the erstwhile state.
