After Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s death, Shi’i protestors in Kashmiri towns and cities like Srinagar, Budgam, Pulwama, Anantnag, and Bandipora called for the death of Israel and America. Sunni political and separatist leaders, like Mahbooba Mufti and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, also joined the protests, calling it a “deeply tragic and shameful point in history.” Similarly, Kargil in the Ladakh region and other Indian states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh, witnessed large-scale Shi’i protests. Though the demonstrations did not escalate into violence, the slogans were not peaceful.
This should be a wake-up call for Indian security agencies and political parties who historically consider Shi’a loyal to the Indian constitution.
India’s moderate Shi’i intellectuals quipped in informal interviews that in the Shi’i tradition, an infant learns about Imam Hussain bin Ali’s martyrdom and the 680 Battle of Karbala before it knows its parents and nation. One, with experience in Israel, suggested, “Khamanei’s death has produced a new Hussain, whose martyrdom will inspire Shi’as for the next hundred years, particularly the younger generation.” Continuing his rant against Israel and the United States, he stated that Shi’a love death and are willing to fight to the death against America, Israel, and their friend Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu supporters. He disregarded Khamanei’s killing of unarmed civilians.
This should be a wake-up call for Indian security agencies and political parties who historically consider Shi’a loyal to the Indian constitution and see Sunnis as the cornerstone of religious extremism. Historically, Indian Shi’a have deep-rooted cultural, political, religious, and ancestral connections with Iran. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s ancestors lived in the Indian states of Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh. Khamenei, in his 1981 Kashmir visit, addressed both Shi’a and Sunnis in Kashmir from Srinagar’s Jamia Mosque. In his address, he urged both to rise above sectarianism and national boundaries in pursuit of the religious causes. Iranian supreme leaders often equated Kashmir with the Palestinian cause in their sermons, projecting it in the Shi’i framework of resistance against oppression.
Even though a Kashmir jihad is a Sunni-dominant phenomenon, Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution has inspired Kashmiri separatists. In 2016, when Saudis executed Shi’i cleric Nimr al-Nimr, Shi’a in India and particularly Kashmir protested in large numbers. In 2019, Iran criticized India’s abrogation of Kashmir’s special status and, in 2020, the Citizenship Amendment Act, which aimed to expel illegal Muslim immigrants. Additionally, over the past three decades, the Islamic regime in Iran has made inroads among Indian Shi’a in Kashmir, Ladakh, Hyderabad, and Lucknow, creating a sense of religious loyalty. Several Kashmiris study at the University of Tehran and in the Qom seminary. Iranian resistance literature enjoys huge popularity among Kashmiris. Notably, the Iranian regime has also created sleeper cells and used them in orchestrating bomb attacks outside the Israeli embassy in Delhi.
Many former and serving intelligence officials argue these protests are not anti-India; they are against Israel.
That Indian Shi’a hold extraterritorial loyalties towards a murderous regime responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent people defies logic and reason. Indians note no corollary demonstration by Kashmiri Muslims against the Pahalgam attack and the Pulwama suicide bombing. However, the Indian agencies and the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party have hardly paid any attention to Shi’i extremism. In some parts of northern India, such as Lucknow, Shi’a vote for the Bhartiya Janata Party—not out of nationalism, but because of their conflict with Sunnis. Many former and serving intelligence officials argue these protests are not anti-India; they are against Israel, and they suggest Modi should not have “blatantly supported Israel” in the Knesset.
While their advice might be wrong, they are right to highlight the importance of timing. Since Modi visited Israel just before the war started, the protesters believe he played a role in Khamenei’s death, alleging he provided the coordinates of Khamenei’s locations through alleged Indian intelligence bases in Chahbahar. This could lead to Shi’a cooperating with Sunni extremist groups in anti-India and anti-Israel sabotage, which could extend to terrorist attacks on Israeli and American individuals and centers in India.
