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| India-Pakistan |
| A tale of two 'Faisals' who made headlines |
| 2010-05-21 |
| THIS is the story of two Faisals, one from India's Jammu and Kashmir and the other from Pakistan. How they spell their names differ, and also how they have built their lives and the values they have come to represent. Their names appeared side-by-side in the Indian media last week. Similar treatment was lacking in the international media that focuses on the way Muslims live in India and Pakistan and more critically, in Kashmir, the bone of contention between the two South Asian neighbours. But let us talk more about the two Faisals. Shah Faesal, a medical doctor from Kupwara district in the troubled Kashmir Valley topped the Indian Civil Services Examination last year, becoming the first person from Jammu and Kashmir to achieve that distinction. He cracked the difficult, multi-phase examination at the first attempt. He is not alone -- there are three others from Kashmir who have made it to the coveted list of would-be Indian civil servants. Born in 1983, when Kashmir was a peaceful place, Shah had a violent setback when his father, Ghulam Rasul Shah, a school teacher, was killed by "unidentified gunmen" in 2002. The shattered family moved from the village home to Srinagar where not only Shab, but his brother and sister too, managed to study with distinction under the care of their mother. Shah Faesal, 27, said he owed his success to his well-knit middle class family and to divine blessings. He is specially beholden to his mother, Mubeena, 47, who was the pillar of strength during critical times. "I am humbled. I had faith in my hard work, Allah's grace and the blessings of my family," he said. Shah could have picked up the gun. In the prevailing atmosphere of unemployed, disoriented youths, it is not improbable. But he stayed focused on studies and close to his family. Now, let's look at the other Faisal. Faisal Shahzad, 30, is the Pakistan-born American citizen accused of trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square in New York. Son of retired air vice-marshal Bahar-ul-Haq of the Pakistan Air Force, he had a sheltered life, studying in Karachi, Islamabad, Rawalpindi and later in the United States, where he earned a management degree. He married an American girl of Pakistani descent, also educated. It was a marriage arranged by their respective parents who live in Pakistan. They have two children and everything seemed fine till the global recession took away his job. Friends of Shahzad say he became more religious and sombre in the last year or so. While people across America and the world suffered the recession, Shahazad sought refuge in militancy. It was a considered decision that was not taken on the spur of the moment. He sought his father's permission to join al-Qaeda and fight in Afghanistan against the Western forces. The father, according to reports, refused. But he did not inform anyone in authority of his son's plans. Shahzad told investigators that he drew inspiration from Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni-American ulama whose militant online lectures have been a catalyst for several recent attacks and plots. Awlaki, 39, now hiding in Yemen, has emerged as perhaps the most prominent English-speaking advocate of violent jihad against the US. Investigators say he was trained by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Shahzad met its operatives in North Waziristan in north-west Pakistan in December and January. Later, he received training in the use of explosives from the same operatives. America's counterterrorism officials want to know how Shahzad, a naturalised American citizen with an MBA who is married and has children with a fellow American and who has worked in several corporate jobs, came to embrace violence. Shahzad has added to the long list of Pakistan-born youths living in the West who have embraced violence. The British have traced 70 per cent of such youths to Pakistan. The US has outlawed TTP and threatened "dire consequences" to Islamabad. But let us not digress and return to the Indian Faisal. He is one of a total of 875 candidates -- 680 men and 195 women -- who have been recommended for appointment to the Indian Civil Services whose officials govern India. Of them, the bespectacled Shah has chosen the most coveted Indian Administrative Service (IAS). Why the government job of an administrator when he is already a qualified doctor? Shah said as an administrator, he could serve many more people and make a difference. "I want to set an example by providing a corruption-free administration to the people," a confident Shah said. He seems serious. Committed to integrity, Shah was a Right To Information (RTI) activist in his college days. He wants to be a role model for the Kashmiri youth. He is already in the good company of fellow Kashmiris on the elite list of wannabe bureaucrats. Rayees Ahmad Ganai, a resident of south Kashmir's Anantnag district, Showkat Ahmad Parray, from north Kashmir's Baramulla district, and Mir Umair Nabi, from Srinagar, are the other three selected this year. Parray said their achievement would disprove certain notions about Kashmiris. "More Kashmiris will crack such exams in the coming years," he declared. "There is a general notion that Kashmiris cannot clear this highly competitive exam. Through our hard work, we have proved this wrong," he said. All four achievers come from districts that have witnessed militancy for the past two decades. It is after 17 years that Kashmiri youth have made it to the IAS list. Alas, all this would be of little use to those for whom Kashmir is a "dispute" and little else, in terms of propaganda and diplomatic and political mileage. To deny that there are problems in Jammu and Kashmir would be wrong. The feat of Shah and the other three is symbolic of the aspirations and achievements of the Kashmiri youth in India amid adverse conditions. It should be an eye-opener to those who want to live off the Kashmir dispute -- wherever they are. |
| Posted by:john frum |