Of transitions: JI silent over Kashmir genocide

Party adorns city with banners felicitating Turkish people

PESHAWAR: The tough stance of Jamaat-e-Islami on the issue of Kashmir and the ongoing bloodshed of Kashmiris seems to have been changed now that the party has been celebrating the failed coup attempt in Turkey.

The party has adorned provincial metropolis with banners and billboards to felicitate the Turkish people for resisting the coup and paying tribute to the people who lost their lives in the process. However, it is silent over the killings of dozens of Kashmiris. It has organised rallies in almost in every district of the province, displaying banners carrying picture of the Turkish president and JI chief Sirajul Haq.

Even on Wednesday, Minister for Local Government Inayatullah Khan, from JI, took out a rally in Charsadda district, expressing solidarity with people of Turkey.

However, keeping in view its popular stance on the Kashmir cause, the party was supposed to have raised the issue on national and international levels.

Changing stance?

However, a dissident group that parted ways with JI, protested against the killings in Kashmir outside Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday. Even Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl protested in Swabi over the Kashmir cause and against the bloodshed that has been going on since the last several days.

“It seems JI’s traditional stance has been changed and popular slogans altered to an extent since Sirajul Haq has become ameer of the party,” said Muhammad Raza, a researcher on politics of religious parties in Pakistan.

He added JI wants to be part of a larger consensus – to resolve the Kashmir issue through peaceful dialogue.

However, when contacted, JI K-P Spokesperson Dr Muhammad Iqbal Khalil said there was no change in the stance of his party on the Kashmir issue.

Iqbal said a rally from Rawalpindi to Islamabad would be taken out on July 24 while another protest would be held near Wagah border on July 31.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 21^st, 2016.