Iftikhar Khan (governor)

Iftikhar Khan (also spelt as Iftikar Khan) was the Mughal governor of the Subah of Kashmir 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, 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 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, to put a stop to the oppression. This was taken by the group as a divine sign from Shiva 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 historian, Prithivi Nath Kaul Bamzai, in his works.

His reign as governor of the subah lasted until 1675.