[Reader-list] The 'secular' Freedom Movement of Kashmir

Mon Aug 18 19:22:02 IST 2008

Dear Kshmendra,

The opposite of secular is not 'communal'. The opposite of secular is
religious.

best
shivam

On Mon, Aug 18, 2008 at 7:19 PM, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Excerpts from the News Report in Daily Excelsior of 17th Aug 2008
> (dedicated weblink available only after archiving):
>
> - Geelani said that the Kashmiris had launched a movement of 'Azadi
> Bara-e-Islam' (freedom for Islam)
>
> - streams of participants today shouted maximum of pro-Pakistan and Islamic
> slogans like "Pakistan se rishta kya, la illaha illalla", "Jeevay Jeevay
> Pakistan", "Yehan kya chalega: Nizaam-e-Mustafa" besides the familiar "Ham
> kya chahte: Azadi".
>
> Kshmendra
>
> FULL NEWS REPORT BELOW
>
> Geelani asks pro-India leaders to resign or face 'social boycott'
>
> *At massive rally in Pampore, Hurriyat chief calls it 'freedom for Islam'
>
> From Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
>
> SRINAGAR, Aug 16: With the authorities losing control of the situation fast
> and a fresh phase of turbulence attaining all the trappings of a religious
> separatist movement, heads of both factions of the separatist Hurriyat
> Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, have asked
> Kashmir's pro-India politicians to immediately resign or else face 'social
> boycott'. Geelani has called this avatar of the separatist movement as
> "freedom for Islam" and warned Jammu & Kashmir Police to immediately "stop
> your shameful atrocities on the (Kashmiri) nation or face the social
> boycott".
>
> While addressing a massive condolence meeting over the death of People's
> League chairman Sheikh Abdul Aziz and over 20 others in different incidents
> of firing earlier this week, at Pampore today, Geelani said that the
> Kashmiris had launched a movement of 'Azadi Bara-e-Islam' (freedom for
> Islam), which, according to him, would be carried to its logical conclusion.
> He said that today's mammoth rally would bring it home to all and sundry
> that the Kashmiris' "freedom struggle" would continue unfazed inspite of
> "economic blockade and all other impediments".
>
> While local cable television channels reported that six lakh people
> participated in today's rally and the official figures vacillated between
> thirty and fifty thousand, independent watchers believe that over one Lakh
> Kashmiris, drawn from different parts of the Valley, participated in the
> remembrance meeting and listened to the senior separatist leaders.
> With a contrast to the dominance of pro-freedom slogans and flags in the
> last 15 years, streams of participants today shouted maximum of pro-Pakistan
> and Islamic slogans like "Pakistan se rishta kya, la illaha illalla",
> "Jeevay Jeevay Pakistan", "Yehan kya chalega: Nizaam-e-Mustafa" besides the
> familiar "Ham kya chahte: Azadi".
>
> While there were no flags of groups like Yasin Malik's JKLF and Sajjad Gani
> Lone's People's Conference, which are dominated by red, white and blue
> colours, men in the rally today carried green colour flags emblazoned with
> "Allah-o-Akbar" (God is Great). Many of the participants also traveled to
> Pampore with black flags atop their vehicles, signifying mourning over the
> death of Sheikh Abdul Aziz and over 20 others killed in different incidents
> of firing in the last few days.
>
> Director General of Police, Kuldeep Khoda, had announced overnight that
> Police or armed forces would not obstruct the rally if it passed off
> peacefully. His statement came hours after a green signal from another
> senior Police official who even said on local television channels that
> Sheikh Abdul Aziz's "sacrifice" would augur well for restoration of peace in
> the State.
>
> In his fiery speech, a visibly emboldened Geelani asked all leaders of the
> pro-India parties in J&K, including Members of Parliament, Ministers and
> others holding any positions in the Government, to immediately resign.
> "We'll be otherwise forced to call for social boycott against them", Geelani
> said. He also shot a warning to J&K Police to "stop your shameful atrocities
> on the Kashmiri nation, or else face social boycott". Mirwaiz too advised
> the mainstream politicians to quit and join the "freedom struggle". He too
> said that the pro-India leaders would have to face "social boycott" if they
> failed to respond to the call. "There are unimaginable consequences for them
> ahead and that day is not far away", Mirwaiz warned.
>
> Geelani advised his audiences against attacking armed forces "so that they
> don't get an excuse to open fire". While taking an oral oath from the
> audiences, Geelani asserted that only a peaceful agitation would lead in the
> "desired direction". He claimed that intelligence agencies had cultivated as
> many as 44,000 agents, whose task, according to him, was to "sabotage our
> freedom movement and change its course with chaos and confusion". He said
> that "these paid agents" had a many times in the past succeeded in "changing
> the course of our freedom struggle in favour of India".
>
> "This time around, however, it will be brought home to India that it has no
> room in Kashmir", Geelani said and described Pakistan as the "benefactor of
> the Kashmiri nation". He asked the Kashmiris to pursue the "one-point agenda
> of freedom for Islam". He, nevertheless, sought to assert that the
> Kashmiris' war was strictly against the Government of India and her policies
> towards Kashmir and not against the people of the country.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Mirwaiz reiterated his fresh set of demands and asked New Delhi to withdraw
> armed forces from J&K, revoke Armed Forces Special Powers Act, release all
> political detenues from the State and throw Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road open
> for "free trade and travel". In a significant development, Mirwaiz, who was
> otherwise perceived to be lukewarm to Geelani's call of election boycott
> until yesterday, emphasized on "total boycott" to any elections to be held
> by India in Jammu & Kashmir. Speaking little about SASB land controversy and
> "economic blockade of Kashmiris", Mirwaiz asserted that the day of winning
> freedom from India was not far away.
>
> On this occasion, JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik, too advised the Kashmiris
> against taking any step that could weaken "our freedom movement". He said
> that "sacrifices laid by Sheikh Aziz and others would not go waste as nobody
> would be allowed to exploit the same for vested interest". He said that the
> Kashmiris had invested their life and assets in the "freedom struggle" and
> it was now "time to harvest".
>
> Sheikh Aziz's s seniormost colleague in Peoples League, Shabir Ahmed Shah,
> stressed on the need of also opening Mughal Road which, he said, would join
> the people of Rajouri and Poonch districts of Jammu with Kashmir valley. He
> asked the people not to attack any mediaperson and expressed his shock over
> the fact that a number of newspersons and camera crews had been attacked by
> unruly crowds in the last few days.
>
> Shah implored his audiences to respond to the call of Hurriyat Coordination
> Committee and make all of its programmes a big success. Sheikh's longtime
> colleague, Nayeem Khan, and a number of other separatist leaders were also
> present. Mirwaiz disclosed that Hurriyat would hold an important meeting on
> Sunday to chalk out "further course of action" and asked his supporters to
> similarly gather for Hurriyat's "UN Chalo" programme on Monday next.
>
> While militants have significantly silenced their guns since last
> fortnight, thousands of people in the rallies, leading to Pampore today,
> chose to maintain peace inspite of shouting hardcore pro-Pakistan slogans.
> They raised the pitch of their "Jeevay Jeevay Pakistan" when cavalcades of a
> senior CRPF officer and a Brigadier passed by but did not resort to stone
> pelting. Armed escorts observed restraint and wended their way towards a
> military formation.
>
> Army's and State Government's helicopters maintained surveillance over the
> rally and captured its movement in video cameras, occasionally flying very
> low. Sources said that two senior officials of the state government were
> among those who watched the rally's passage for several hours and reported
> it to Governor. Small groups of youth, carrying Islamic and black flags on
> their motorcycles and vehicles and shouting pro-Pakistan slogans, made
> repeated rounds in the so-called safe zones in Srinagar as if to establish
> that it was a liberated town. Police and CRPF watched them mutely for the
> day.
>
> In minutes of the separatist leaders' threats to mainstream politicians,
> hundreds of people launched an attack on the guarded house of the prominent
> counter-insurgent, Ghulam Mohammad Lone alias Papa Kishtwari, who has been
> in jail after contesting and losing several elections, at Pampore and razed
> it to rubble brick-by-brick. They also set a condemned vehicle on the
> premises on fire. Eyewitnesses said that an armed platoon of J&K Police,
> which had been guarding Kishtwari's house since 1995, cleared out and took
> refuge in the Police Station.
>
> Before the separatists' rally returned, an old time colleague of Mirwaiz
> Umar, namely Mohammad Yaqoob Vakil, reportedly announced his resignation in
> Mehbooba Mufti's People's Democratic Party (PDP). Reports said that he was
> returning to the Hurriyat. Earlier this year, PDP had celebrated Vakil's
> entry as "a remarkable achievement" for the party. After the current phase
> of the separatist movement has crippled the J&K Police, a number of
> mainstream political activists, as also the families of Police and civil
> officials, known for strengthening the Indian system in Kashmir, have
> reportedly migrated to safer places.
>
>
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