Harmony Foundation Condemns Pahalgam Islamic Terror Attack
Dr Mathai also said that every faith, at its core, preaches peace, unity, and compassion, yet time and again, radical elements within Islam have used its name to justify murder and mayhem.
Pune: Dr. Abraham Mathai, former vice chairman of Maharashtra State Minorities Commission, has strongly condemned the brutal and horrific attack on tourists in Baisaran in Kashmir, on April 22, where at least 26 innocent people, including two foreigners from UAE and Nepal, were brutally killed by militants. The attack left 17 others injured.
Terrorists opened fire on tourists on April 22 in the famed Baisaran meadow, about 5 kilometers from the resort town of Pahalgam in Kashmir’s Anantnag district. Indian authorities described the attack as one of the deadliest in recent times.
“It was an act of sheer barbarism,” Dr Mathai, also the founder-chairman of the Mumbai-based Harmony Foundation, said, adding that this cowardly assault by militants on unsuspecting tourists shatters the very essence of humanity.
Reports of terrorists singling out tourists on the basis of their religion, forcing them to recite the "Kalma", and targeting them based on their faith, expose a chilling truth about these ruthless radical Islamic terrorists who continue to spread hate and violence in the name of religion, he noted.
“While terrorism has no religion tag, this incident starkly proves otherwise. The deliberate targeting of individuals based on their religious identity reveals the deep-seated hatred fuelling such atrocities by radical Islamic fundamentalists,” Dr Mathai said.
"The heinousness of this act where families were torn apart, lives were taken, and a place of beauty was stained with the blood of the innocent tourists is beyond comprehension,” he said, unequivocally condemning all radical Islamic groups, such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba and others that perpetrate such violence in the name of religion.
Dr Mathai also said that every faith, at its core, preaches peace, unity, and compassion, yet time and again, radical elements within Islam have used its name to justify murder and mayhem.
“This perverse distortion of faith to sow division and death is a blot on humanity,” he pointed out.
Dr Mathai said that it was important to note that terrorism takes many forms, fuelled by motives ranging from political to ideological. However, the horror and terror unleashed in the name of Islam, as seen in the Pahalgam attack, is particularly chilling for its calculated exploitation of religion to justify violence and terrorism.
He said the deliberate targeting of innocents based on faith—masked in religious rhetoric—is deeply alarming and despicable as it aims to fracture and destroy the very fabric of humanity under a distorted guise of divinity.
Dr Mathai asserted that it is high time for secular Muslims to strongly speak out unequivocally against such radical ideologies. “Silence in the face of such atrocities only emboldens those who seek to hijack a religion for their violent agendas, which the world has witnessed time and again,” he noted.
Dr Mathai said that India’s strength lies in its diversity, and none would tolerate attempts to fracture this unity through violence and hatred.
He said that “our hearts go out to the families who have lost their loved ones” in this senseless attack, urging all to honour the memory of those lost by recommitting to peace, unity, and justice.