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| | Double standards Uproar over Pak ultras' death, mum over local student's murder! | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Feb 25: When on last Friday, "unidentified gunmen" shot dead a 25-year-old student of Islamic Studies, Waseem Ahmad Malla, in the senior most Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's hometown of Sopore, there was murmur of protest or condemnation. Not even the most expected reaction or an allegation that the young man had been "assassinated by the Indian agencies and armed forces for being an Islamist".
Mr Geelani has indeed emerged as the most popular and the most influential political leader among all those who nourish the conviction that Kashmir should become part of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan on account of its being the Muslim-majority State. He has reduced to be the only separatist politician who has not been suspected of being "hand-in-glove" with the Indian government and whose credentials have not been called into question by the pro-Pakistan separatist constituency including the jihadist militants.
This profile of Geelani makes him accountable for his support of silence to the militant killings, which often go unreported and are not mourned or condemned in Kashmir. Geelani, in fact, deserves credit for setting the course and agenda not only for fellow Hurriyat activists but also for most of the so-called human rights activists and mainstream politicians---from MLA Engineer Rashid to Chief Minister Omar Abdullah.
Malla was the most perfect case for Ragda-2014. The Assembly was in session; he was a resident of Sopore, the hub of pro-Pakistan politics and insurgency; he was a young student of Islamic Studies at the Islamic University of Science and Technology; his family was traditional the supporter of Mr Geelani; his brother was a human rights activist and advocate.
Geelani who issues his statements religiously every afternoon and even on flimsy excesses by armed forces and Police chose to remain tightlipped on Malla's assassination. This kind of his reaction is always being taken as a certificate of one's credentials---where the innocent civilian killed was a Tehreeki or non-Tehreeki. Mr Geelani's silence on a death is the last word.
Since Mr Geelani neither condemned Malla's killing nor called on the bereaved family, there was no demonstration at the start of the business in Assembly by Engineer Rashid. No Mustafa Kamal raised the issue on the floor of the House. Omar Abdullah did not tweet. The human rights activists and separatist leaders did not throng Malla's residence. Geelani or Mirwaiz or Yasin Malik or Shabir Shah did not call for shutdown. Thus Malla was buried as one of the thousands similarly killed in cold blood by the gunmen who claim to be fighting for Kashmir's freedom. Those who dared to carry single-column reports on Malla's death in one or two newspapers in the Valley deserve credit as such deaths had been completely ignored in the past. Even the Mirwaiz should claim some credit for his daring act of sending two of his junior colleagues to the bereaved family on Monday. They meekly called for "probe" in the student's killing.
Three days later, when Army claimed that seven Pakistani jihadists were killed in an encounter with Rashtriya Rifles in Kupwara, all the separatist leaders broke their silence and alleged that possibly the civilians had been killed in a fake encounter. Lalpora Police Station was attacked and a bunker set on fire. Over 20 demonstrators got injured in clashes with Police. Suddenly, Mr Geelani called for "Kashmir bandh against the fake encounter" on February 28.
If this is the standard of selectively condemning the killings of the potential killers and adopting total silence on hundreds of the innocent civilians like Waseem Ahmad Malla, the cycle of death and destruction will last long. Nobody may question but history will definitely one day raise such questions and determine who were the saviours and who were the killers of the Kashmiris. Army definitely will have to take its share of slur on its face for Pathribal, Ganderbal and Machhil but would the likes of Mr Geelani, Engineer Rashid and Omar Abdullah do for thousands of Waseem Mallas silenced for ever by the guns from across the border? |
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