Author: Muzamil Jaleel
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: August 17, 2008
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/story/349697.html
They would march towards UN office in Srinagar
today
All roads in Kashmir on Saturday led to Pampore
- a small saffron town and home to slain Hurriyat leader Sheikh Abdul Aziz.
And when thousands marched towards Sheikh's home to pay homage, the colour
of this mammoth rally was green, its content separatist. The Hurriyat said
"we are not enemies of Jammu and want no division of the state",
but warned the mainstream Kashmiri politicians to resign or face social boycott.
The separatists, however, emphasised that
their struggle this time will remain "non-violent and peaceful"
and said there would be a march towards the office of the United Nations Military
Observer Group in Srinagar on Monday.
"We support the cause of the mujahideen
(militants) but this struggle will remain peaceful. We will not use force,
we will not use gun, we will not use stone, we will protest peacefully,"
said Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
He said it was time the mainstream political
parties joined them. "If anyone of them is a Parliament member or a minister,
he must resign. And if they don't, they will face social boycott," Geelani
said. He said the separatists were not against the Hindus in Jammu and Buddhists
of Ladakh. "We are not the enemies of Hindus of Jammu. We want their
right of self-determination as well. We want the unity of the state."
The Mirwaiz took it a step further. "No
so-called election process is the solution to Kashmir problem," said
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chief of the Hurriyat moderates. "We will reject
the elections as we have done in the past." He called on the National
Conference and the PDP to join the separatist struggle. "The time is
not far when you (the workers and leadership of the mainstream political parties)
will be thrown out of the society," he said.
JKLF's Yasin Malik focused on the recent "economic
blockade" of Kashmir. "When baby food was stopped, when medicine
was prevented from coming to Kashmir, when we had to cancel weddings, when
our fruit was forced to rot, people had sought an alternative route to bring
essential supplies and they (forces) opened fire at this peaceful procession,"
he said. "Now it is a revolution. And if we manage to carry it forward
with discipline, I promise you that this revolution will force India to leave
Kashmir."
The state Government had earlier in the day
decided not to halt the procession and the police and CRPF men had clear directions
to avoid any confrontation with the crowd. There was no violence except when
the crowd gathered around a counter-insurgent's house on their way back and
ransacked it. The procession gave way to a cavalcade of a senior Army officer
and a top CRPF commander who was caught in the middle.