[Reader-list] Secessionist leaders exchange blows (The Curse of Lakshmi)

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

Aazadi by blows...!!!

On 8/21/08, rashneek kher <rashneek at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> SRINGAR: A meeting of secessionist groups, called to discuss the future of
> what has been characterised as the largest Islamist mobilisation since
> 1990,
> dissolved into chaos after members of rival factions exchanged insults and
> blows.
>
> Leaders of the Ali Shah Geelani-led Tehreek-i-Hurriyat and Srinagar cleric
> Mirwaiz Umar Farooq's All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) charged each
> other with engaging in actions damaging the course of the ongoing movement,
> provoking their supporters to engage in scuffles.
>
> Sources present at the meeting said APHC leader G.M. Hubbi was physically
> attacked by his Tehreek-i-Hurriyat counterpart Masrat Alam, and several
> important leaders, including Mr. Geelani and the APHC-affiliated Shabbir
> Shah, left the meeting in disgust.
>
> Both groups had said earlier that they would organise a joint protest at
> Srinagar's Idgah on Friday, where the future course of the agitation was to
> be made public.
>
> It is now unclear if the two groups will be able to announce a shared
> programme of agitation, and, indeed, if their fragile alliance will survive
> Wednesday's clashes.
>
> Kashmir's Mufti-e-Azam (chief cleric), had earlier denounced Mr. Geelani's
> call for all Srinagar residents to offer Friday prayers only at the Idgah,
> saying it was repugnant to Islamic practice.
> Simmering tensions
>
> Tensions between the secessionist leaders have been building up since
> Monday when Mr. Geelani asked tens of thousands of people who assembled at
> a
> protest rally to endorse him as the leader of the secessionist movement.
>
> Mr. Geelani also made clear his belief that the movement was for the cause
> of Islam, and Jammu and Kashmir's incorporation in to Pakistan—assertions
> that incensed rival secessionist leaders such as the Jammu and Kashmir
> Liberation Front's Yasin Malik.
>
> Mr. Geelani later apologised for any offence his remarks—but did not
> withdraw his claim to be the principal leader of the movement.
>
> Within the APHC, too, tensions have been high ever since Mirwaiz Umar
> Farooq
> agreed to unite with the Tehreek-i-Hurriyat in June.
>
> The Mirwaiz and Mr. Geelani agreed to join hands just as protests against
> the grant of land-use rights to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board was
> picking
> up. Both leaders agreed to a three-point formula for joint action, in a
> declaration that appeared to meet Mr. Geelani's long-standing demand that
> the APHC not engage in direct talks with the Government of India.
>
> Senior APHC leaders like Bilal Gani Lone and Abdul Gani Bhat were highly
> critical of the unification plan, complaining that they were not consulted.
>
> From the outset, Mr. Geelani defined the agenda of the alliance, relegating
> the APHC to the role of junior partner. Even the alliance's first joint
> rally, a June 20 gathering held to protest against the sale of liquor,
> gambling and drug abuse, was led by Mr. Geelani.
>
> Mr. Geelani also alarmed centrists in the APHC by characterising their
> joint
> movement as a struggle for the defence of Islam, rather than a political
> movement.
> "Religious aggression"
>
> For example, at the June 20 rally, Mr. Geelani decried the grant of
> land-use rights to the Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board as part of India's
> "cultural and religious aggression." He said India wished to force
> Kashmiris
> to "backtrack from the gift of Islam given to us by Mir Syed Ali Hamdani
> 650
> years ago."
>
> Mr. Geelani also claimed that "universities and educational institutions
> are
> being used as platforms for spreading Shaivism, Kashmiriyat and degraded
> Sufism. Vice Chancellors of these universities are trained by intelligence
> agencies to percolate imperial and lethal occupational designs."
> http://www.hindu.com/2008/08/21/stories/2008082160491200.htm
> Best Regards
> --
> Rashneek Kher
> Wandhama Massacre-The Forgotten Human Tragedy
> http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com
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