‘Rapist’ Dervish’s Followers Protest, Cry Foul in Kashmir

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Mujtaba Wani

SRINAGAR: Followers of the self-styled dervish, arrested in Kashmir on charges of raping minor girls, have staged a protest to demand his release.

Over a hundred men wearing skull caps and women clad in the Burqa gathered at the Press Colony in Srinagar chanting religious slogans like “Deenas Bahaara, Syed Gulzaara (Prosperity for Islam is Syed Gulzar)”.

The protesters said allegations against their ‘innocent priest’ were baseless and leveled by another group of Islamic scholars with personal vendetta.

Most of the protesters were taken into custody by the local police.

‘Sex for Purification’

Gulzar Ahmed Bhat, who went by the name ‘Syed Gulzar’, has been arrested for allegedly raping his young female students on the pretext of ‘purifying’ them.

Bhat ran a residential institution for girls which offered a two-months course in Islamic studies in Khansahib area of Budgam district.

Four girls, all aged under 18, complained to the police that the ‘fake dervish’ would quote sayings in Arabic to justify his sexual activity with them.

“He would tell them that having sex with him was necessary to purify them of all evil,” a police officer told Freepress.

‘Manipulated Quran’

‘Syed Gulzar’ has been preaching his interpretation of Islam in the valley for nearly a decade now. Of late, he would give advertisements in newspapers claiming to be a Sufi and also delivered sermons through local cable TV network in the valley.

A scholar, Moulvi Muhammad Amin, the whistleblower in this case, alleges that Gulzar would manipulate verses of the Quran to hide the fact that adultery and fornication were punishable in Islam. He alleges that Gulzar has so far raped nearly 200 girls at the hostel.

But Gulzar’s followers, chanting “Syedi Murshidee (Our King, our spiritual guide)”, say the accusations are false.

“I have been studying under him for nearly three years now. I was a normal girl, modern, but he turned me into a practising Muslim,” says Ruqaiyya from Pulwama district.

As she spoke to reporters before being taken to the police station, Ruqaiyya faced tough questions from bystanders who ridiculed them for supporting a ‘rapist’.

But she frantically quoted the Quran like a missionary and said “You have your laws, but in the hereafter you will know our peer was innocent.”