Sir — This refers to the article, “Kashmir valley : From nowhere to nowhere” (July 17) by Balbir Punj. The writer is correct in tracing Kashmir’s Islamist agenda right from the 1930s, when a pro-Muslim movement for a separate State was gaining ground. Sheikh Abdullah, as a student of Aligarh Muslim University, had pro-Islamic separatist leanings since the 1930s.
It is a fact that the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, could realise Abdullah’s plan only in 1953. It is said that by 1953, Nehru’s close friend and colleague in the Union Cabinet, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai, smelled the conspiracy in Kashmir through a relative who was Chief Secretary in Jammu & Kashmir.
Kidwai went to Kashmir and participated in Eid celebrations. Both, Abdullah and Kidwai, held Eid prayers together in the mosque. Abdullah was going to declare Kashmir’s independence after the Eid prayer but with Kidwai’s tactics, he was arrested.