Chanting pro-Pakistan slogans and waving green flags re-occupied Kashmir valley on Friday when thousands of people attended a rally led by hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani in south Kashmir’s Tral pocket. The rally replicated April-17 gathering in capital Srinagar when Muslim league chairman Masarat Alam charged up participants with his sloganeering in praise of Pakistan and Jamiat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Muhammad Sayeed. Alam was arrested two days after the rally under tremendous pressure from BJP and other nationalist parties and was later booked under Public Safety Act (PSA).
Geelani showed up in sensitive Tral town, where two youngsters were killed in a controversial encounter with the Army last month, in the wee hours triggering massive protests. The relatives of the slain youngsters accused that they were killed in a staged encounter, but the Army claimed they had militant connections and died in an encounter.
Geelani was conscious of the slogan shouting and tried to limit the audience to azaadi slogans only, but the crowd invoked Pakistan, militants and lashkar-e-Tayyeba.
The rally was held at historic Khanqah-e-Faiz Panah in the town before the congregational Friday prayers. Geelani later visited the homes of two slain youngsters and offered condolences to their relatives. A spokesman for Geelani said that such a mammoth rally was held in Tral after seven years.
Sources said that Geelani left his uptown Srinagar residence before the crack of dawn to evade possible restrictions by the authorities on his movement. The authorities usually put the separatist leaders under house arrest to prevent their speeches on Friday congregations.
However, sources said that the authorities had no plans to curb his movement on Friday.
“Jeeve Jeeve Pakistan (long live Pakistan), Hum Pakistani hein, Pakistan hamara hai (we are Pakistanis, Pakistan is ours), were the main slogans apart from hum kya chahte, azaadi (we want freedom)”, a participant in the rally told The Pioneer.
The police did not show up in the town during the rally that ended in a peacefully.
last week, the authorities dismantled a CRPF bunker in the main town following complaints that the picket was main cause of stone-pelting in the area.
Geelani touched all contentious issues in his hour-long speech including rehabilitation plans for displaced Kashmiri Pandits, issuance of Permanent State subject certificates at the school level and official patronage to the Amarnath pilgrimage.
He said that the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits in exclusive colonies was unacceptable to Kashmiris and it was detrimental for the traditional Kashmiri ethos. “We welcome Kashmiri Pandits to return to their homeland but they should come and live in their original habitations. Excusive townships are not acceptable to us,” he said.
Demanding ban on liquor in Kashmir, he accused the State and Central Governments of encouraging anti-Islam activities in the Muslim majority State in the name of tourism and culture.
He demanded that the Amarnath pilgrimage must be limited to 15-day duration for the safety of environment of the fragile State. He said that the people of Kashmir have been forced to develop residential colonies in low-lying flood-prone areas while as the Army and security forces have “occupied” safer residential zones.
Accusing Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed of being a puppet of in the hands of the BJP, he said that during his two-month tenure, three persons have been killed in custody.
