In a rarest of rare development, the divided pro-freedom leadership of Kashmir came on a single platform in Narbal area of City outskirts where a teenage boy Suhail Sofi was killed in police firing couple of days ago.Witnesses and sources told Srinagar-based news agency GNS that Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who heads his own faction of Hurriyat Conference, was first to reach to Narbal where he met the family of Suhail Ahmad Sofi and expressed his heartfelt condolences with them.In the meantime, sources said, the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman Yasin Malik also arrived and met the bereaved family.The octogenarian leader and chairman of his Hurriyat faction, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who was placed under-detention by authorities too reached Narbal and met the family of slain teenage student and paid tributes to Suhail.
The development, observers say, is extraordinary since the trio has mostly remained at odds with each other.A JKLF leader, who spoke to GNS on the condition of anonymity, said: “Malik sahab urged Mirwaiz sahab to hold the joint rally.” “Call it coincidence or faith, Geelani sahab also arrived and then the joint gathering was conducted in which all the three leaders addressed people,” he said, adding: “it brought smile on the face of people and they were very happy.”Hundreds of people including men, children and women attended the “unscheduled” rally of pro-freedom leaders in Narbal amid massive pro-Islam, pro-freedom and anti-India slogans. “The area reverberated with the slogans,” the witnesses said.A spokesman of Mirwaiz’s Hurriyat said a “protest rally was taken out from local Jama Masjid in which amalgam’s chairman, “veteran resistance leader” Syed Ali Shah Geelani and “pro-freedom leader” Yasin Malik and other pro-resistance leaders along with large number of people participated. “Later, a gathering was conducted in Narbal chowk…” the spokesman said.
Mirwaiz said: “People of Kashmir are united and one in perusing their goal and the mission of martyrs would be taken to its destination with complete unity of purpose and commitment.”“BJP and other pro-Indian parties of Kashmir were equally and jointly engaged in the efforts of weakening the resistance movement of Kashmir, however, commitment of the people of Kashmir and especially, that of the young generation towards the movement will not allow them to succeed,” he added.It is for first time since year 22nd August 2008 – when “one million” people flooded historic Eidgah ground of Old City – Geelani, Mirwaiz and Malik addressed people from a single stage. Even, the 2010 mass uprising couldn’t bring the three leaders together. Although, Mirwaiz and Malik addressed thousands of people jointly in 2010 at Lal Chowk but Geelani was not in the scene as he was placed under house arrest by the then government.The JKLF chairman said: “These kinds of massacres,” while referring to Tral and Narbal incidents, “are not acceptable to any civilized society and people of Kashmir today want to ask India and its Kashmiri puppets that why are they hell bent on killing our innocents and why are they pushing our new generations to the wall?”
Malik lashed out pro-India political parties and said they are hatching conspiracies against the freedom movement and asked people to remain steadfast. He said the “freedom is our right and our struggle for freedom will continue and nothing can deter us from marching towards freedom”.Geelani, however, lashed out people who voted in recent polls and accused them of treachery. “Voters are national criminals,” he said, adding: “those vote in the name of roads, electricity and water are hurting the cause.”Claiming that pro-freedom leadership is united over the issues of “occupation” and “election dramas”, he blamed people for defying leaders’ poll boycott call. The octogenarian leader said people voted for Congress, some for PDP, some for NC and even some voted for BJP in the Kashmir valley.
Geelani asked people to “introspect” and said till people don’t overcome their weaknesses, the “destination of freedom would remain far” and Tral and Narbal like incidents would continue. He also lashed out at pro-Indian political parties and their leaders including Omar Abdullah and Mufti Muhammad Sayeed. Geelani accused them of killing Kashmir youth and serving “Indian interests” in the region.The second rung leaders of pro-freedom camp were also accompanying the top three leaders on the occasion and many of whom addressed the gathering.“The people were shouting ‘Unity Unity’ in the gathering,” witnesses said, adding: “It was an extraordinary seen because all we have witnessed so far is division after division in the pro-freedom camp.” The Kashmir pro-freedom camp has come under severe criticism from people, militants and civil society for not uniting under one single banner “despite exemplary sacrifices by the people”. (GNS)