While the discussion was initially intended to focus on another topic, Patel chose to address the question head-on. “It’s a sensitive subject,” he acknowledged, “but I want to frankly put forward my view. Because of recent events and the buzz on social media, this discussion has become necessary.”

Patel’s response was not politically driven, but deeply rooted in Islamic ethics and Sharia principles. His critique centered not on the people of Pakistan, but on what he described as a dangerous contradiction: the open and tolerated presence of armed terror groups within the country’s borders.

“Think for yourself — Pakistan is a country where terror groups openly exist,” he said. “It may not be officially legal, but their existence is not hidden.”

From a Sharia perspective, Patel reminded listeners that such realities are alarming. Islamic scholars across the world have issued fatwas—legal verdicts—categorically opposing the existence of independent armed militias operating outside the state’s control. “Even if what these groups do is set aside for a moment,” he said, “their very existence is a problem.”

Zaid Patel emphasized that such groups, while claiming to operate in the name of Islam, have in fact brought grave damage to the image of the religion globally. “These groups carry out violence, including attacks on civilians, and claim it as jihad. But their actions have no basis in the Quran or the Sunnah,” he noted.

In a powerful and emotional moment, Patel turned the spotlight on the consequences faced by Indian Muslims.

“We Indian Muslims suffer because of this exported extremism. The extremism increasing in India also has roots in this external influence,” he said.

According to Patel, these groups have not only harmed Muslims in Pakistan but have also created ripple effects across the region. Their activities have given fuel to anti-Muslim narratives, sowing suspicion and hostility toward peace-loving Muslims, especially in India.

“Have you ever seen a terror group condemn an attack, saying it was wrong?” Patel asked. “Instead, even if they didn’t do it, they behave as if they want credit for it. That’s the dangerous mentality that is spreading in public spaces.”

This dual failure—both moral and political—has led to what he calls “a double policy.” On paper, Pakistan adheres to international treaties and obligations. But in practice, these groups operate with shocking impunity. “There’s ample proof that they operate with legal and logistical freedom,” Patel said. “When the whole world knows about them, how can we pretend otherwise?”

His message was particularly resonant for Indian Muslims, who often find themselves caught in the crossfire—both metaphorically and socially. “We bear the consequences both internally and externally,” he lamented. “Terrorism is being used as a proxy war in the name of Islam, and all of us suffer because of it.”

Ending his statement with clarity and compassion, Zaid Patel reiterated that Islam offers no room for such armed militancy. “A Muslim country should not allow independent armed groups to exist. There is no justification for it in the Quran or Hadith. Their actions harm Islam and Muslims worldwide.”

In an age of noise and half-truths, Patel’s forthright response stood out—not just for its honesty, but for its deep concern for the well-being of Indian Muslims and the sanctity of Islamic teachings. It was less a political answer and more a moral plea: for accountability, for clarity, and above all, for peace.

Militias linked to political parties, some backed by Iran, have tightened their grip over state institutions since the U.S. invasion

Hasanain Alminshid had received death threats for his human rights activism for years, but ignored most of them. After his mentor was gunned down outside a police station, he finally made the difficult choice to flee Iraq.

“It’s too dangerous now. There have been killings in the open in front of security forces,” he said, speaking by ‘phone from Istanbul, where he has based himself since that incident in November last year.

Alminshid, 29, his mentor Amjad Aldhamat and several other activists had attended a meeting with police to discuss a planned protest in their hometown of Amara in southern Iraq during some of the most deadly anti-government unrest that swept Iraq last year.

As Aldhamat walked out, gunmen sped past in a car with tinted windows and no licence plates and shot him dead. Alminshid left the country five days later.

It was one of dozens of targeted killings that have pushed more and more young Iraqi civil society activists, rights workers and journalists to flee what they say is a continuing onslaught by militia groups.

Rights groups say the departure of people whose activities range from educating Iraqis about their right to vote to leading protests against perceived abuses has further weakened civil society movements that have been active for decades.

The independent rights organization Al-Amal says at least 44 kidnappings and 74 attempted killings of activists have taken place, mostly in Baghdad and southern Iraq, in the last year.

It has documented at least 39 killings since October 2019, when thousands of Iraqis took to the streets in mass anti-government protests demanding jobs and the departure of the ruling elite which they said was corrupt.

The protests toppled former prime minister Adel Abdul Mahdi in December but lost steam after more than 500 people were killed in a crackdown by security forces and unidentified gunmen, and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Assassinations escalated with the beginning of the protests last year,” said Hassan Wahab of Al-Amal. “We have started losing our sources on the ground.”

Reuters spoke to seven activists who fled Iraq in recent months, five of whom said that they were advised by local police to leave because they could not guarantee protection from armed groups.

A military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that security forces were often powerless to protect activists from rogue militias, because those groups had powerful political backers whom he did not name.

Militias linked to political parties, some backed by Iran, have tightened their grip over state institutions since the U.S. invasion that toppled President Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Lost Hope

Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi, who took office in May, has pledged justice for activists killed or abused by armed groups, and has faced off against some Iran-backed parties.

But the formation of nearly 35 committees by the new government to tackle the challenges, including pursuing those responsible for protesters’ deaths, has resulted in no prosecutions so far.

“I’ve lost all the hope I had in Kadhimi,” Aldhamat’s brother, Mohammed Aldhamat, told Reuters in Amara.

Speaking in Amjad’s home, where their mother also lives, he added that his family had been told they would see the results of the investigation into his brother’s death within three months. Four months have passed with no word.

An Iraqi government spokesman did not respond to requests for comment.

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said state institutions were “infiltrated” by parties and militia groups that had no interest in punishing the killers of protesters.

The government has vowed to crack down on what it says are criminal armed groups trying to destabilise the country, and to impose state control over weapons as part of efforts to reduce the influence of militias.

Alminshid said a police officer at the hospital where Aldhamat was pronounced dead asked him a few questions, but no one has contacted him since.

The day after Aldhamat’s killing, military authorities in Amara sent a memo to the interior ministry recommending that security forces protect nine other activists it said were on a hit list, according to a document seen by Reuters.

A military official confirmed the document’s authenticity.

One of the activists on that list, 28-year-old Hamza Qassem, got wind of the memo through a friend in the Amara police force and left for Istanbul, where he, Alminshid and other exiled Iraqis who used to run a rights NGO in Amara now reside.

That NGO no longer exists. Seven of its founders are in Turkey and three have been killed.

“Amara has become a terrifying city,” Qassem said.

The main protest site in Amara, which was occupied a year ago by throngs of anti-government protesters, is now sealed off by security forces and metal gates.

“We took to the streets and asked for a nation, but the authorities gave us a cemetery,” said one of the protesters, Haider Halim. “The only solution is to leave.”

India is considering offering young Kashmiri militants an escape from a life of violence by temporarily resettling them in more peaceful parts of the country, according to the top military commander in the Kashmir Valley.

Lieutenant General B.S. Raju revealed the plan for a new scheme to offer a way out of militancy during a telephone interview from his headquarters in Srinagar, Kashmir’s main city.

He told Reuters recommendations had been submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and that the plan, while not finalised, was in an advanced stage.

“These are young boys who need to be taken care of for a period of time,” Raju said, adding that could involve temporarily settling them outside of Muslim-majority Kashmir.

Past efforts to persuade fighters to put down their guns have had mixed success. But Raju said the military had recommended the scheme take a longer-term approach to rehabilitating ex-militants.

“The bottom-line is that it will have a structure that will help and give confidence to the people who are opting to surrender,” Raju said.

More than 50,000 people have died during more than three decades of an insurgency that New Delhi accuses neighbouring Pakistan of fuelling, by using militant groups to wage a proxy-war across the disputed border dividing the Himalayan region.

India has flooded the valley with security forces – about 200,000 military and paramilitary troops are deployed there. And Raju said militant attacks have dropped by nearly 40% compared to last year.

Around 180 active

Last August, Prime Minister Modi changed the political landscape by taking away Jammu & Kashmir’s status as India’s only Muslim majority state, splitting it into two federally-controlled territories and removing the special privileges afforded to Kashmiris.

Promising a concerted effort to develop the region economically, Modi said the move was need to integrate Kashmir more fully with the rest of the country, but critics said it would further alienate Kashmiris.

Pakistan, which maintains a long-standing territorial claim on Kashmir though it denies accusations that it materially helps the militants, has denounced Modi’s action.

Since the start of the year, Indian security forces have killed around 135 militants, most of them recruited locally.

The military estimates that there are currently around 180 militants operating with various groups active in the valley, Raju said. Some 70 local Kashmiris are reckoned to have been recruited by these groups since the start of the year, about a dozen less than during the same period a year ago.

“We wish that this should drop further, and finally cease altogether,” Raju said.

Currently most surrenders are conducted in line with a 2004 policy that provides a lump sum payout of 150,000 Indian rupees ($2,000), a small monthly stipend, free vocational training and cash payments for weapons handed over.

The New Delhi-based South Asia Terrorism Portal estimated that more than 400 insurgents have surrendered since 2004, but after 2007 the numbers came down to a trickle, with only two dozen men giving up arms in the last three years.

Kuldeep Khoda, a former Kashmir police chief, said the scheme had partly failed because the vocational training provided by the government was inadequate.

“If you ask me very frankly, there was hardly any training being given. They were just kept there for a few months,” he said. “It was just a formality which was being completed.”

Iraq’s current prime minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi is described as having a “special relationship with Iran”

Iranian intelligence officers have co-opted much of the Iraqi government’s cabinet, infiltrated its military leadership, and even tapped into a network of sources once run by the CIA, leaked cables have revealed.

So prevalent is Iran in Iraq’s affairs that Iranian officers effectively have free rein across key institutions of state and are central to much of the country’s decision-making, according to the cables, which were passed to the Intercept and jointly published with the New York Times.

The intelligence haul largely reaffirms the widely known dominant role that Tehran has played inside the borders of its neighbour, but casts new light on how its agents operate and the extent to which each prime minister and cabinet member has been vetted to ensure they are serving the Islamic Republic’s interests.Advertisement

The cables, contained in 700 pages that both news organisations say have been verified, offer a snapshot of political life in Iraq in 2014-15, during the height of the Islamic State insurgency, when Iran stepped up its involvement in Iraq.

They reveal that Iran’s ministry of information and security, along with the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guards, were the two main vehicles for Iran’s influence, identifying and running sources at the most senior levels of government, which kept the country pliant and aligned to Iran’s objectives.

Though more than four years old, the cables give a contemporary insight into Iraq’s current political fissures and a protest movement that is threatening the seat of power – in part inspired by resentment towards Iran’s role in the country.

Demonstrators have taken to the streets of Baghdad and southern towns for almost five weeks, railing at systemic corruption and the government’s deference to its neighbour. A violent crackdown over the past fortnight has been led by the Quds Force’s Gen Qassem Suleimani, who has been a prominent figure in Iraqi affairs for at least the past decade and features heavily in the cables.

A rivalry between the ministry of information and security and the Quds Force is spelled out with Suleimani seen in one dispatch as potentially using his uniquely powerful role in Iraq to prepare for a political career back home.

Suleimani’s presence and influence is peppered throughout the documents, helping lead a battle against Isis, coercing a then transport minister to allow Iranian planes to overfly Iraq with weapons bound for Syria, and spending regular time with government officials.

Iraq’s current prime minister, Adel Abdul-Mahdi, (who was oil minister at the time) is described as having a “special relationship with Iran”. Its former head of military intelligence, Hatem al-Maksusi, was reported in a cable to have told an Iranian intelligence official: “Tell them we are at their service.”

The documents were passed to the Intercept by an anonymous source whom the online publication says it has not since identified. Nevertheless, many of the people named have been contacted, and some offered staunch rebuttals of their reported remarks.

One cable focuses on an alleged former CIA source, whom the agency codenamed Donnie Brasco. It claims that when the American footprint in Iraq shrunk from 2011, the source approached an Iranian officer, and later revealed a network of operatives and safe houses. He says he was paid $3,000 (£2,300) a month for his services, and given $20,000 and a car when he finished working with the Americans. The Iranians also gave him a codename; it was “Source 134992”.

Martin Chulov is a Middle-east Correspondent for The Guardian.

Article first published in The Guardian.