World

Mirwaiz attacked by Hindu extremists

The APHC leaders were at a conference where Mirwaiz was delivering a speech on Kashmir and Indo-Pak relations.

Express November 26, 2010

CHANDIGARH:

All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Bilal Lone were attacked by members of Hindu extremist organisations of Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Kashmiri Pundits and RSS in Chandigarh on Thursday. Mirwaiz was in Chandigarh to address a seminar on Pakistan-India relations and Kashmir.

Commotion broke out when the group barged into the hall and rushed to the dais where Mirwaiz and other APHC leaders were seated, eyewitnesses said. Pandemonium broke out inside the hall for half an hour as protesters shouted slogans against Mirwaiz, APHC and Pakistan. Later, the police escorted Mirwaiz to his car and arrested the miscreants.

A representative of Mirwaiz in Pakistan and senior APHC leader, Faiz Ahmed Naqashbandi, said that Indian intelligence agencies were involved in the attack on Mirwaiz. “Hindu terrorist and extremist organisations are taking dictation from Indian intelligence agencies in this regard,” he said. “Attacks on Kashmiri leaders are to silence their voices against the brutality of Indian forces’ in Indian Kashmir.”

Meanwhile, tension gripped parts of Srinagar as news of the attack on Mirwaiz spread with groups of youth taking to streets shouting pro-Mirwaiz slogans. Shopkeepers in Rajouri Kadal, Nowhatta and Nallahmar downed their shutters and traffic went off roads.

“I am not hurt. I am totally fine. We were sitting there to discuss things. If they had something to share, then they should have raised the issue and it could have been debated. For every problem there is a solution and that was the main aim of this round table conference,” Mirwaiz said.

“There are many forces who are trying to mislead the people but we will continue our efforts. People of India have a big stake in the Kashmir issue and they have to come up to solve this problem. We will go to various places and present the real picture of Kashmir,” APHC chief added. The APHC has started a campaign to apprise the people of India about the gross human rights violations being committed by Indian troops across the Valley and need for resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo has denounced the attack. “It is a negation of human rights and moral values. It proves India’s claim to democracy as false and reveals its true face as being unworthy of a permanent seat in the UN Security Council,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 26th, 2010.

COMMENTS (28)

sudhir | 13 years ago | Reply "mirwaiz manhandled by kashmiri pandit?" this must be the most liberal newspaper of pakistan. i was expecting something like " saint mirwai brutally attacked by najis hindu terrorists" what a lovely peace loving spiritual neighborhood india has. thank you pakistan

Resham Singh | 13 years ago | Reply Hey RSS/Pandits welcome to the axis of evil, or should I say glad you came out of the closet!

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Cherish Raj | 13 years ago | Reply @Mir Agha The Indian Government and the people of India do have the responsibility to protect the homeland of the Kashmiri Pandits. Whatever fact finding mission the leaders of the Hurriet carries out, there are 1.2 billion people to assure that we have the land from which the Pandits were kicked out by the 'strategic assets'. These fake missions cannot wash away the cruelty committed by Mirwaiz and company. We never gave up when India grew at 2% and do not think that we would give it away when the growth has climbed to 9%. Sorry. Plus we need energy to fuel our economy and we are constructing dams in Kashmir- dozens of them.

vasan | 13 years ago | Reply Mir Agha Pl note that Pandits are not communal forces . They are refugees driven out of Kashmir by the communal forces spawned by Pakistan. Pl learn to differente them. This is the same communal forces which are fuelling the stone pelting campaign

Anoop | 13 years ago | Reply @Mir Agha, "Some communal forces like the pandits show their anti-Kashmiri colors when teh truth is being told." --> So, you know what the truth is. Pandits are living in refugee camps driven out by Muslims like Mirwaiz and others. They have been forcibly kicked out of their own homes. Now, you want to impose the truth on them! Mirwaiz's sons and daughters enjoy the freedom and opportunities in India while he leads Kashmiris to uncertainty. He nor his Hurriat colleagues have never batter for Pandits who are refugees in their own countries. Not once have they openly told the militants to back off and invite the Pandits to their old homes and businesses they had to leave behind. You, my friend, are one of those senses light up when there is Muslim pain but vanish when the atrocity is committed by your ilk over others. Kashmir is never going out of the Indian Constitution. Its time you and other who have ruined Pakistan by supporting Kashmir but ignoring the even bigger Balochi problem. While India is growing double the rate of Pakistan, its evident that Kashmir is not affecting its growth but it certainly affecting Pakistan's.

Mir Agha | 13 years ago | Reply Seems some ideologues haven't moved on from 47 and realized the 2-nation reality. Kashmiris will never accept occupation of their homeland nor the fantastical notion of india. Mirwaiz is well-intentioned to leave Kashmir for India to go on a fact-telling mission. Some communal forces like the pandits show their anti-Kashmiri colors when teh truth is being told. Progressivism and forward looking must prevail.

SKChadha | 13 years ago | Reply @ Kataria & Mir Agha The issue of intolerance by few towards separatist voices in J&K has been turned first to Hindu Muslim issue by ET by changing the title. Now the comments are making it Indo Pak war of words? My denouncing the intolerance shown by Kashmiri Pandits in Chandigarh is not to undermine the atrocities committed by Muslim majority of J&K against them. The mute question is whether we got anything out of blood bath of partition or will we get anything positive by violence now. Main issue is that frustration is building due to over tolerance of such separatist voices. This situation may not harm the basic fabric of Indianess. Kashmiri Pandits may not ignite the same frustration against Hurriat Pasand which we saw during partition. Friends, tolerance is not the weakness. It is strength and majority in J&K realize it. I hope situation will improve and Kashmiri Pandits will get their right place in their homeland very soon. As a Indian citizen, I have no respect for any leader who shy away to prove his majority amongst the people to whom he represents.

G. Din | 13 years ago | Reply @Mir Agha ".... Either way they are an insignificant minority, those pandits that left on their own...." True, they are a insignificant minority. So is the entire population of Kashmiri Muslims in India. So should we ignore them? "... The ones in the valley know full well the truth, they are protected by Kashmiri leaders." Pray, tell us how many Pandits live in their homes in Kashmir valley who are so gallantly being protected by Kashmiri leaders. You should get rid of this notion that if you quote one malcontent Indian such as Bose or Arundhati Roy or Kuldip Nayyar etc. etc, that you have clinched the issue for yourself. A billion strong society can afford to have - and ignore - a few malcontents. They are ego-driven exceptions and exceptions do NOT prove the rule. "...The pandits left on their own from the orders of the indian installed governor of IOK, jagmohan." I think you have a very dim view of intelligence of your reading public to think that you can get away with it. People don't leave their ancestral homes and hearths "from the orders" of any one. A clear dangerous situation had been created when Pandits were murdered, thrown over the bridges into rivers, their womenfolk raped in their presence, hounded out of their neighourhoods by wild Islamists with the usual aim of purging non-Muslims out of Kashmir. Look what is happening to Christians in Pakistan and Iraq. Exactly what the Kashmiri Muslims did to Pandits.

Tony Singh | 13 years ago | Reply @Kataria What would Palastianians do if Mr. Natanyahu went to west Bank/ Gaza? What Kashmiri Pandits did is cannot be termed as even a "A mild rebuke" considering the condition in which likes of Mirwaiz and Lone have put them into. They are Hindus, that's why they tolerated him being there in first place. Islamic militants would have detonated the whole block apart under such conditions. Or maybe you think only Muslims have right to protest.

Tony Singh | 13 years ago | Reply @Kataria This reflects the mindset of Pakistan's mentality at large. This may be your reality, but not as rest of the world sees it. The problem is that Pakistan sees everything through goggles of religion. That is why they see Hindus/Muslims/Sikhs, not people. (As reflected in Aisia Bibi case). So it sees Kashmiri Pandits thrown out of their homeland as "Hindu extrmists". That is the reality.

Manoj | 13 years ago | Reply Kashmir is source of eternal enemity between India and Pakistan. India will never accept, and rightly so, the two nation theory and let Kashmir go from Indian union. It will be better for all right thinking Pakistani and Indian to accept the LOC as permanent border, as agreed between Mussharaf and Manmohan singh. This is the only senseble solution I can can foresee. Kashmir is a bad omen (Panauti in hindi) for both India and Pakistan. Due to enemity with India, Pakistan lost Bangaldesh. It can never grow as an economic power due to huge defence expenses and There is every chances that if this enemity continues, Pakistan geography may agian change in 5 to 10 years time. India has also lost out many growth opportunity since independence because of Kashmir. It has spent huge amount of tax payer money in Kashmir to please the handful of Kashmiri and on defence to defend Kashmir from Pakistan.Those amount if spent some where else in infrastructure and education sector, we would have become powerful developed country by now. India and Pakistan both have sacrificed their wealth and youth on Kashmir and Kashmiri separatist leadership is enjoying their life. They are getting best of both world, fooling both India and Pakistan. They have huge bank balance in foreign banks, their children study in foreign countries and they live in palatial house. They just provoke ordinary Kashmiri youth to take up arms and get them killed in the name fight for freedom. I am afraid, one day the bad omen Kashmir will become reason for the total elemination of mankind from both India and Pakistan due to nuclear war.

Kataria | 13 years ago | Reply *change

Kataria | 13 years ago | Reply The chance to "hindu extremists" is a reflection of reality. Good job ET.

Anoop | 13 years ago | Reply @Tony Singh, Even this paper wants to make things spicy to please its readers. The plight of Pandits should be ignored at all costs.

Anoop | 13 years ago | Reply @Mir Agha, Pakistan was born with the cry of Islam under danger and Muslims in peril. Look what is happening now. It is a country where Muslims are not allowed to call themselves Muslims(Ahmadis) and attacks on Shia processions. Pakistani establishment itself propped up a anti-Shia group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and that group has turned on the state, as you well know. One report goes thus: "Fifteen per cent of the state's Muslims live in the provinces of Jammu and Ladakh . They are non-Kashmiris, and by and large, they stand behind J&K's association with India. (There are a few small exceptions in some towns of Doda district). Of the state's 49% who reside in the Kashmir province, about 13% are Shia Muslims. Shia Muslims do not wish to have anything to do with Sunni-dominated Pakistan, knowing full well the fate that awaits them there. (Just recently, an Oct 4, Hindustan Times report cited Pakistan's Shoora Wahdat-i-Islami who condemned what it called the genocide of Shias in Pakistan.) This is especially true of the Shias of Kargil who know of the poverty and degradation experienced by their ethnic siblings in Baltistan, a part of Pakistan occupied Kashmir referred to as the "Northern Areas". 14% of the people in Kashmir province are the pastoral nomadic Gujar and Bakarwal people. They are strong supporters of association with India and have demonstrated this by organizing Militancy Mukhalif Morcha (Anti-Militancy Front) to assist the security forces in surveillance of terrorist activity. As far as non-Muslim groups are concerned there is no reason for them to even think about living outside multi-religious and secular India." http://india_resource.tripod.com/kashmir.html I have Shia friends who share their concerns with me. If the Pakistani state itself is guilty of supporting anti-Shia group like LeJ, imagine what faith awaits the Shias of Kashmir. India treats it like a secular issue, Pakistan treats it like a Muslim issue. The wounds of Partition are haunting Muslims,who are more than 150 million in strength, and they have begun to recover. Why would you want to enforce another trauma which will haunt them for decades? Shia's,Ahmadis,Buddhists and Hindus of Kashmir would love to be with India. Even many Sunnis would love that. Only a fringe minority in the state of J&K want Pakistan. Lest you forget, J&K has 3 parts- Kashmir, Ladakh and Jammu. The latter 2 are well-integrated into the society. So, the majority in J&K favour India. The recent assembly and parliamentary elections where there was overwhelming participation prove this fact again.

Mir Agha | 13 years ago | Reply Anoop you should read up on facts, not mythology. I'd like to refer you to the excellent write-up by an indian writer, Biswas on BBC where he stated factually and debunked the secretarian myth conjured up by the jingoistic media that you have in india. Shias, as i am one, are an inseperable part of the Kashmir movement. The Gurez residents have also been raising their voice for Kashmir. Reading Kashmiri media would do you good, not inanities in indian media. It is completely understandable that you adhere to these false notions seeing as though you are brought up in an environment where facts and truth need not apply. The pandits left on their own from the orders of the indian installed governor of IOK, jagmohan. They are a classic case of persecution complex. Either way they are an insignificant minority, those pandits that left on their own. The ones in the valley know full well the truth, they are protected by Kashmiri leaders.

Tony Singh | 13 years ago | Reply Dear Editor Yesterday the headline was Kashmiri Pundits.Today it is Hindu extremists for the same article. Why the change? Afraid to tell the truth to Pakistan public on Kashmir?

Anoop | 13 years ago | Reply @Kataria, @Mir Agha, All the Pandits were driven out by the militants,supported by Pakistan, out of Kashmir during the 90s. They know that Kashmir under Pakistan influence will be murderous for them. That is why they want to stick with the Secular India. Even the Shias want to be with India. Such a insensitive thing to say what you did. Most of the Pandits are living in refugee camps in Jammu and near New Delhi. The guys who are fighting for independence see Kashmir as a Muslim issue and this can be seen by the type of statements they make every week. I can provide you many such examples if you need them.

Mir Agha | 13 years ago | Reply The pain of the pandits can go away if they start thinking about Kashmir.

Kataria | 13 years ago | Reply These anti-Kashmiri Pandits should start seeing themselves as Kashmiris if they want to be taken seriously in the Kashmir discourse. Fake victim hood and hindu extremist ideology from this extreme minority will not keep them in good offices with Kashmiris.

G. Din | 13 years ago | Reply @SKChadha: There is no blank check for anything or anyone in life or democracy. You cannot continue to ignore frustration of people who raise slogans and protest for ever. There comes a time when protests must be taken to the next level. Ask Kashmiri Pandits who are living in camps as refugees in their own land. Evidently, you did not hear their slogans and protests earlier. Now you do!

Kamil Bangash | 13 years ago | Reply Funny, I didn't know Chandigarh was part of Kashmir!!! So the boundaries of Kashmir are constantly expanding? Great thinking.

TKhan | 13 years ago | Reply Ohh man.. Only Indian comments.. you guys are like ghosts.. hiding and reading ET all the time but only comment when you know one one will bother replying back. BTW, Muslims are in clear majority in Kashmir.

Anoop | 13 years ago | Reply @SKChadha is right. Those guilty should be punished..

Paras Vikmani | 13 years ago | Reply the pain of kashmiri pandits must also not be forgetten

Tony Singh | 13 years ago | Reply Congrats ET, this time you got the headlines right

SKChadha | 13 years ago | Reply Raising slogans and protests are alright, but nobody has right to manhandle others for expression of his opinion in India.

G. Din | 13 years ago | Reply This is to remind the world that Kashmir is not totally inhabited by Muslims! Muslims may be in a slight majority, the minorities are not that negligible or irrelevant!

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