Pir Dastigheer shrine and other sad events
Excelsior Special Correspondent
Srinagar, July 1: The common denominator in the discourse of Hurriyat conglomerates and statements made jointly as well as individually by the leaders of coalition groups, is that a big conspiracy is hatched to divide the Muslim community of Kashmir along sectarian and factional lines.
Justification is sought in several incidents happening in sequence in the course of few weeks in recent past in Bandipora, Narbal, Gund Hasipora Lavepora and the more recent one in Khanyar.
In a statement made after the Advisory Council of Hurriyat (G) met under the chairmanship of Syed Ali Shah Gilani, the sequence of events enfolded not only the alleged incidents of sacrilege at Gund Hasi Bhat-Lavepora and Khanyar but also the action of State police in attaching the property of one Khan Sopori of Chhanpora in connection with his alleged involvement in hawala transactions.
In a diabolic reference, the Hurriyat (G) statement also castigated ulema for indulging in complex debates on extraneous issues but circumventing the core issue.
In not too ambiguous a pronouncement, the statement of Hurriyat (G) finds the mischievously invisible hand of New Delhi in promoting visits of Israeli nationals to Kashmir as tourists. “This is a conspiracy against the Muslim ummah carried through the instrumentality of local tourism department”, it averred.
Speaking to a group of people at Gund Husi Bhat Shia shrine at a short distance from Srinagar, coalition partners of Hurriyat (M) Shabbir Shah (Chairman Freedom Party) and Nayeem Khan (National Front), accused the “enemies of Islam” trying to divide the community of Kashmiri Muslims along sectarian and factional lines. Like others in the Hurriyat (M) group, Jamaat-Islami, Liberation Front and National Front contended that anti-Islamic elements were active in Kashmir and out to do mischief only to discredit the “freedom movement.” Nayeem Khan saw a conspiracy being hatched by the enemies of Islam to deflect the “freedom movement” in Kashmir as it has gained good ground by giving huge sacrifices.
Accusing the police of making large scale arrests of mostly innocent youth, the hard line faction said that the state police was acting criminally against its own nation. It called the attachment of the property of hawala notoriety Khan Sopori, a “blatant act of state terrorism.”
Notwithstanding the rhetoric of conspiracies and dubious ways diabolically attributed to unspecified adversary, (read Indian), the separatist groups have not reacted uniformly to the issue of holding enquiry into the accidental fire at Pir-e Dastigheer shrine.
For example, rejecting official enquiry into the fire, the Hurriyat (G) stated that those trusting official enquiry into the accident were stooges of the Government and they serve their self interests rather than the people of the State. It will constitute a team from among its coalition partners headed by the Sajjada Nishin (keeper of the shrine) to conduct independent enquiry into the accident.
Though Hurriyat (M) faction did not issue a formal statement yet, during his visit to the shrine soon after it was gutted, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq avoided using patent rhetoric of other separatist leaders like “conspiracy”, “invisible hand”, “divide and rule”, “anti Muslim ummah” etc. while speaking to the mourners assembled there. But he said that enquiry into the accident should be conducted not by the Government but an impartial agency headed by the sajjada nashin Sayyid Khalid Gilani assisted by a team of ulema, intellectuals and representatives of civil society.
However, Mirwaiz modestly turned down the offer of the Government of India to provide assistance in the reconstruction of destroyed structure. In virtual rebuff to the Home Ministry, he pointedly said that the Government of India should desist from interfering in religious and communal affairs of the Muslim community as it was capable enough to take care of its interests.
Yasin Malik of JKLF assured that if an enquiry committee was constituted along the lines suggested by Mirwaiz, his organization would keep at its disposal all support needed to bring the assignment to completion. It was at Gund Hasi Bhat that he hinted at some un-Islamic elements trying to spark off sectarian clashes and thus harm the “freedom movement”.
Obviously, he and others were at pains to express that an incident of sacrilege in a Shia dominated area could prove a match stick to the keg of powder. Kashmir Sunni leadership chapter of the “freedom movement” is conscious of regional and international repercussions of a sectarian clash in Kashmir.
Nevertheless, severest criticism coupled with dire warning came from Advocate Zahid Ali, the spokesman of Jamaat-e-Islami. Charging local Government with failure to suppress and contain subversive elements trying to foment sectarian strife in Kashmir, he asserted that anti-Muslim happenings had taken place in Kashmir at a time when anti-Islamic forces within Islam failed to create and spearhead reaction against Islam on wider international scale. He appealed to the ulema, the clergy and Islamic intellectuals to guide the community through their Friday discourses and congregational addresses.
Amusingly, Abdul Majid Tramboo, the Patron of Liberating Front and Chief of Kashmir Centre in Brussels (Belgium) has made an appeal to the OIC to set up an impartial enquiry into the Pir-e Dastigheer incident to unmask culprits of the heinous crime. He said that “OIC enquiry is necessary to prevent recurrence of accidents like this.”
It will be recalled that the Tramboo-run Kashmir Centre in Brussels is a branch of Kashmir American council/Kashmir Centre run by Ghulam Nabi Fai, who has been sentenced to two years imprisonment by an American court for evading taxes and conducting propaganda against a third but friendly country of the US, namely India.
Political observes find at least three versions of demand for impartial enquiry into the Khanyar incident. Even reaction of coalition members of Hurriyat (M) is loaded with divergence. While Mirwaiz and Yasin Malik have almost kept away from politicizing this and other religion touching incidents, coalition partners like Shabbir Shah, Nayeem Khan, Javed Mir and others have tried to draw political mileage from it. Nayeem Khan even clubbed the local mischief mongers among the enemies of Islam and referred to their manhandling of some leaders. Obviously he was alluding to manhandling of and mud slinging at Shabbir Shah by the angry mobs when the latter visited the shrine at Khanyar as it was being consumed by leaping flames.
Follow our WhatsApp channel