Iftikhar Khan (also spelt as Iftikar Khan) was the Mughal

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of the

Subah A Subah was the term for a province (State) in the Mughal Empire. The word is derived from Arabic and Persian. The governor/ruler of a ''Subah'' was known as a '' subahdar'' (sometimes also referred to as a "''Subeh''"), which later became ''subed ...

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

from 1671 to 1675.

Governorship of Kashmir

He was appointed as governor of the Kashmir province in 1671 and is said to have enacted discriminatory policies, on the orders of

Aurangzeb Muhi al-Din Muhammad (; – 3 March 1707), commonly known as ( fa, , lit=Ornament of the Throne) and by his regnal title Alamgir ( fa, , translit=ʿĀlamgīr, lit=Conqueror of the World), was the sixth emperor of the Mughal Empire, ruling ...

, against the local Hindus of Kashmir, including destruction of Hindu temples, indiscriminate killings, and forced conversions. Many girls and women from the Kashmiri Hindu community were seized for the Islamic harems during his governorship period. His policies pushed the Kashmiri Pundit community to the brink and made an organized group 500-strong from the community seek divine help from

Shiva Shiva (; sa, शिव, lit=The Auspicious One, Śiva ), also known as Mahadeva (; ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐ, or Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hindu ...

at the Amarnath shrine. According to traditional lore, after the appeal made to Shiva at Amarnath, one of the participating Kashmiri Pundits had a dream of Shiva instructing the group to seek assistance from the ninth Sikh guru,

Tegh Bahadur Tegh ( hy, Տեղ) is a village and the center of the Tegh Municipality of the Syunik Province in Armenia. Tegh is the last village on the Goris-Stepanakert Highway before passing the border with the Republic of Artsakh. Of significance in the vi ...

, to put a stop to the oppression. This was taken by the group as a divine sign from

to seek the assistance of the Sikhs. A delegation of around five hundred Kashmiri Pundits, led by Pundit Kirpa Ram, sought the Guru's help at Anandpur Sahib and detailed the genocidal policies enacted against the Hindus of Kashmir under the governorship of Iftikhar Khan. The genocidal actions against the Kashmiri Hindus during his reign was noted and documented by the

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Baruah ...

historian,

Prithivi Nath Kaul Bamzai Prithivi Nath Kaul Bamzai (1910–2007) was a Kashmiri scholar and historian who wrote several books on the history of Kashmir and Central Asia. P. N. K. Bamzai was born in 1910 into a Kashmiri Pandit family of scholarly traditions, and received h ...

, in his works. His reign as governor of the subah lasted until 1675.

References

Sources

* Patwant Singh. ''The Sikhs'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000) p.45. {{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Iftikhar Governors of Jammu and Kashmir 17th-century politicians 17th-century Indian politicians