EFSAS Study Paper: Pan-Islamism & Delocalization in the Kashmir Conflict
April 20, 2021
Pakistan’s Kashmir strategy began to shift in the 1980s under General Zia-ul Haq, who pursued an Islamization of Pakistani society and inserted Islamist militant groups into the Kashmir conflict. Zia’s military government had toppled the democratically elected administration of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1977 and deepened Pakistan’s strategic and cultural ties with the Gulf States. The adaptation of a Wahhabi interpretation of Islam prevalent in some Gulf States, most notably Saudi Arabia, resulted in what some have described as the ‘Wahhabization’ (Roy, 2002) and ‘Saudization’ (Hoodbhoy, 2017) of Pakistani society.