JAMMU/SRINAGAR: Close on the heels of beheading four women in Rajouri district and the burning of a cigarette shop, militant outfits have directed Muslims to follow a set of guidelines like the Taliban had done in Afghanistan.
While in Rajouri the Lashker-e-Jabbar has directed women to wear burqas and men to wear caps and grow beards in keeping with Islamic traditions, another group Hai-e-Allal Fallah threatened to attack shopkeepers who sell liquor or tobacco in Kashmir.
This group took responsibility for setting on fire the cigarette shop on Monday in Srinagar. The shopkeeper, Mohammad Shafi Teli was injured in the incident.
In a faxed statement to the local news agency, News and Feature Alliance, group spokesman Mohammed bin Qasim said: "Shopkeepers selling cigarettes, tobacco, liquor and other narcotic items should completely close down their businesses at once."
"Any shopkeeper or wholesale dealer found violating this diktat will end up like Mohammed Shafi Teli," the statement said.
Lashker-e-Jabbar has asked Muslim women to desist from going to schools and colleges, have a male escort while going out of the house and sit separately from men in buses, police sources said here on Tuesday.
A circular put up by the group in the Degree College in Rajouri warned people against defying their diktats.
Like the Lashker-e-Jabbar, Hai-e-Allal Fallah is also not among known groups operating in Kashmir. Qasim said his group was not affiliated with any other militant outfit or security agency.
"Our aim is to cleanse the society of evils like cigarette smoking, drinking and use of narcotics," he said.
Earlier, in 1990, the Allah Tigers militant group closed down cinemas, liquor shops and beauty parlours in Kashmir. Srinagar now has two cinema halls and two licensed liquor shops, and they all operate under tight security.
Kashmiri people have ignored such diktats in the past and there is lot of public resentment against such circulars. Moreover, major militant groups operating Jammu and Kashmir have desisted from issuing such diktats.
