The Kashmir Valley, which is a part of the larger
Kashmir region that has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan from 1947, has been administered by India from approximately the same time. Before 1947, during the period of
British Raj in India when
Jammu and Kashmir was a
princely state, Kashmiri Pandits, or Kashmiri Hindus, had stably constituted between 4% and 6% of the population of the
Kashmir valley in censuses from 1889 to 1941; the remaining 94% to 96% were Kashmir valley's Muslims, overwhelmingly followers of
Sunni Islam. These Muslims had the self-assured awareness of a predominant community; their support was considered consequential in a determination of Kashmir's future. By 1950, in the face of Kashmir's unresolved accession to India, the land reforms planned by the incoming administration of
Sheikh Abdullah, and the threat of socio-economic decline, a large number of Pandits—whose elite owned over 30% of the arable land in the Valley—moved to other parts of India. In 1989 a persisting insurgency began in Kashmir. It was fed by Kashmiri dissatisfaction with India's federal government over rigging an assembly election in 1987 and disavowing a promise of greater autonomy. The dissatisfaction overflowed into an ill-defined uprising against the Indian state. The
Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), an organization that had generally
secular antecedents and the predominant goal of political independence, led the uprising but did not abjure violence. In early 1990, the vast majority of Kashmiri Hindus fled the valley in a mass-migration. More of them left in the following years so that, by 2011, only around 3,000 families remained. 30 or 32 Kashmiri Pandits had been killed by insurgents by mid-March 1990 when the exodus was largely complete, according to some scholars. Indian Home Ministry data records 217 Hindu civilian fatalities during the four-year period, 1988 to 1991. Under the
1975 Indira–Sheikh Accord,
Sheikh Abdullah agreed to measures previously undertaken by the central government in
Jammu and Kashmir to integrate the state into India. Farrukh Faheem, a sociologist at the
University of Kashmir, states that it was met with hostility among the people of Kashmir and laid the groundwork for the
future insurgency. Those opposed to the accords included
Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir, People's League in Indian Jammu and Kashmir, and the
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) based in Pakistani-administered
Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Since the mid-1970s, communalist rhetoric was being exploited in the state for
votebank politics. Around this time, Pakistan's
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) tried to spread
Wahhabism in place of
Sufism to foster religious unity within their nation, and the communalization aided their cause.
Islamization of Kashmir began in the 1980s when Sheikh Abdullah's government changed the names of about 300 places to Islamic names. Sheikh also started delivering communal speeches in mosques that were similar to his confrontational pro-independence speeches in the 1930s. Additionally, he referred to
Kashmiri Hindus as
mukhbir (
Hindustani: , ), or informants of the Indian military. The ISI's initial attempts to sow widespread unrest in Kashmir against the
Indian administration were largely unsuccessful until the late-1980s. The American- and Pakistani-backed
Afghan mujahideen's armed struggle against the Soviet Union in the
Soviet–Afghan War, the
Islamic Revolution in Iran and the
Sikh insurgency in Indian Punjab against the Indian government became sources of inspiration for large numbers of
Kashmiri Muslim youth. Both the pro-independence JKLF and pro-Pakistan
Islamist groups including
Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir mobilized the rapidly-growing anti-Indian sentiments amongst the Kashmiri population; the year of 1984 saw a pronounced rise in terrorist violence in Kashmir. Following the execution of JKLF militant
Maqbool Bhat in February 1984, strikes and protests by
Kashmiri nationalists broke out in the region, where large numbers of Kashmiri youth participated in widespread anti-India demonstrations and consequently faced heavy-handed reprisals by state security forces. Critics of the then chief minister,
Farooq Abdullah, charged him with losing control of the situation. His visit to
Pakistani-administered Kashmir during this time became an embarrassment, where according to JKLF's
Hashim Qureshi, he shared a platform with the JKLF. Abdullah asserted that he went on behalf of
Indira Gandhi and his father, so that sentiments there could "be known first hand", although few people believed him. There were also allegations that he had allowed
Khalistani militants to train in
Jammu, although these were never proved to be true. On 2 July 1984,
Ghulam Mohammad Shah, who had support from Indira Gandhi, replaced his brother-in-law Farooq Abdullah and assumed the role of chief minister after Abdullah was dismissed, in what was termed a "political coup". G. M. Shah's administration, which did not have people's mandate, turned to Islamists and opponents of India, notably the
Molvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari,
Mohammad Shafi Qureshi and Mohinuddin Salati, to gain some legitimacy through religious sentiments. This gave political space to Islamists who previously lost overwhelmingly in the 1983 state elections. In 1986, Shah decided to construct a mosque within the premises of an ancient Hindu temple inside the New Civil Secretariat area in Jammu to be made available to the Muslim employees for '
Namaz'. People of Jammu took to streets to protest against this decision, which led to a Hindu-Muslim clash. In February 1986, Shah on his return to Kashmir valley retaliated and incited the Kashmiri Muslims by saying
Islām khatre mẽ hai (). As a result, this led to the
1986 Kashmir riots where Kashmiri Hindus were targeted by the Kashmiri Muslims. Many incidents were reported in various areas where Kashmiri Hindus were killed and their properties and temples damaged or destroyed. The worst hit areas were mainly in South Kashmir and
Sopore. During the
Anantnag riot in February 1986, many houses and other properties belonging to Hindus were looted, burnt or damaged. An investigation of Anantnag riots revealed that members of the 'secular parties' in the state, rather than the Islamists, had played a key role in organising the violence to gain political mileage through religious sentiments. Shah called in the army to curb the violence, but it had little effect. His government was dismissed on 12 March 1986, by Governor
Jagmohan following communal riots in south Kashmir, and led to Governor's rule in the state. The political fight was hence being portrayed as a conflict between "Hindu" New Delhi (Central Government), and its efforts to impose its will in the state, and "Muslim" Kashmir, represented by political Islamists and clerics. For the
1987 state elections, various Islamist groups, including
Jamaat-e-Islami Kashmir, organised themselves under the banner of
Muslim United Front, with a manifesto to work for Islamic unity and against political interference from the centre. The two mainstrain parties (
NC and
INC) were allied together and won the election, However, the elections are widely believed to have been rigged in favour of the mainstream alliance and thus the government formed by Farooq Abdullah lacked legitimacy. The corruption and alleged electoral malpractices were the catalysts for an insurgency. The Kashmiri militants killed anyone who openly expressed pro-India policies. Kashmiri Hindus were targeted specifically because they were seen as presenting Indian presence in Kashmir because of their faith. Though the insurgency had been launched by JKLF, groups rose over the next few months advocating for establishment of
Nizam-e-Mustafa (administration based on
Sharia) on Islamist groups proclaimed the Islamicisation of socio-political and economic set-up, merger with Pakistan, unification of
ummah and establishment of an Islamic Caliphate. Liquidation of central government officials, Hindus, liberal and nationalist intellectuals, social and cultural activists was described as necessary to rid the valley of un-Islamic elements. The relations among the mainstream parties and Islamist groups were generally poor and often hostile. The JKLF had also utilized Islamic formulations in its mobilization strategies and public discourse, using Islam and independence interchangeably. It demanded equal rights for everyone, however this had a distinct Islamic flavour as it sought to establish an
Islamic democracy, protection of minority rights per
Quran and
Sunnah and an economy of
Islamic socialism. The pro-separatist political practices at times deviated from their stated secular position. == Insurgency activity ==