Shah Faesal breaks silence after months to condemn France church attack; nothing on Kulgam

Reacting to the extremist attack in France that killed 3 people on Thursday, former IAS officer-turned-politician Shah Faesal condemned the incident and said that there is no space for "toxic ideologies." This tweet from Faesal comes months after he was released from detention and after he deleted all his old tweets in August this year. It was also in August this year that he had resigned from Jammu Kashmir People's Movement (JKPM) - a party that he floated in March 2019, along with former JNUSU VC Shehla Rashid. Incidentally, Faesal's tweet came on a day when 3 BJP leaders were killed in Kulgam, however, the former IAS who had vowed to serve people of J&K in his maiden speech while launching his party, has not reacted to it. 

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Faesal, who was the chief of Jammu & Kashmir People's Movement (JKPM), was detained at Delhi airport in August 2019. He was initially taken to a makeshift detention center at the Centaur Hotel in Srinagar, but was later shifted to his home and was placed house arrest. On August 12, the J&K administration had issued a Look-Out circular against Faesal, which was challenged by Faesal in the Delhi High Court as 'malafide exercise by the Centre'. The administration then slapped the PSA on him and after months of detention, he was released in June 2020.

Attack in J&K's Kulgam

The three BJP workers - Fida Hussain Yatoo, Umer Rashid Beigh and Umer Ramzan Hanan - lost their lives on Thursday after terrorists opened fire on their vehicle which was passing through the Yaripora area in the Kulgam district of South Kashmir. While Fida Hussain Yatoo lost his life on the spot, the other two leaders were rushed to the Qazigund Hospital where they were reported to be critical. However, shortly after, the two also succumbed to their injuries. Lashkar-backed ‘the Resistance Front’ (TRF) has taken responsibility for the Yaripora attack. 

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Another gruesome attack in France

On Thursday, a Tunisian man armed with a knife and allegedly carrying a copy of the Quran attacked worshippers in a French church in the in Mediterranean city of Nice and killed three. This immediately prompted the government to raise its security alert to the maximum level hours before a nationwide coronavirus lockdown. The attacker was seriously wounded by police and hospitalised in life-threatening condition after the killings. Video cameras recorded the man entering the Nice train station at 6:47 am, where he changed his shoes and turned his coat inside out before heading for the church, some 400 meters (yards) away, just before 8:30 am. A knife with a 17-centimeter blade used in the attack was found near him along with a bag containing another two knives that were not used in the attack.

The attack was the third in less than two months that French authorities have attributed to religious extremists.

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