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| Is Sopore incident dissimilar to 1977 Anantnag stoning of Kashmir Mirwaiz's cavalcade? | | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Dec 17: When Kashmir Mirwaiz and Chairman All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Molvi Umar Farooq, was interrupted and later his cavalcade was stoned at Sopore on Friday it made one to remember a major incident in which Molvi Umar's father, Molvi Farooq's cavalcade was stoned while he and his supporters were returning from Anantnag town after their poll campaign during the 1977 Assembly election.
Though the two incidents were not similar in shape and size but the Friday's incident indicated how uneasy or difficult it is for a political leader to surface in an area which is not his stronghold.
In 1977 election Molvi Farooq had forged an alliance with the Janata Party which had sounded the poll bugle against the National Conference. The election had been necessitated following withdrawal of support by the Congress to the Government headed by Sheikh Abdullah. It was a new case of political irony in Jammu and Kashmir.
The congress which had supported Sheikh Abdullah, who had regained power after his accord with Indira Gandhi in 1974, in forming the Government in 1975 was the same congress that withdrew its support to the Sheikh which resulted in the imposition of the Governor's rule followed by Assembly elections.
At that juncture the Janata Party had replaced the Congress in the centre. Since Sheikh Abdullah was the tallest political figure the Janata Party wanted to have an alliance with a regional party in order to secure some electoral gains. This led to an alliance with the Awami Action Committee, headed by Molvi Farooq.
Molvi Farooq was so much confident about the success of his candidates that he decided to go in for a pre-poll campaign in Anantnag, usually the stronghold of the National Conference. After addressing a public rally, a large number of those who were present in the rally were Movi's supporters from Srinagar, his cavalcade was stoned while returning to Srinagar. At a number of places there were pitched battles fought between the Molvi's supporters and those loyal to the National Conference. Since the NC workers and supporters had outnumbered those loyal to the Molvi and the Janata Party Molvi's men suffered more injuries. They staged a hasty retreat from south Kashmir belt.
However, APHC leaders do not attach much significance to the Sopore incident. Senior Hurriyat leader, Prof. Abdul Gani Bhat, says "it is a small incident in which a handful of boys were annoyed when the Maulana did not follow the route they had suggested and hurled a few stones on the cavalcade after the meeting had ended."
Bhat does not find any resemblance between the Friday's incident at Sopore and the one that had taken place in 1977 in Anantnag. He says the nature and purpose of the two incidents were different and the principal actors involved were different.
Though the Sopore incident was being treated as the handiwork of supporters of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who heads the hardliners in the separatist camp, because those who hurled the stones shouted slogans in favour of Geelani and Lashkar-i-Toiba, the rival camp believes that the Sopore trouble was engineered by the same vested interests that had attacked a shopkeeper at Nowhatta resulting in his death.
Both Nowhatta and Sopore incidents indicate that even the separatists and their supporters are not invulnerable to public anger. Of late strange events have started resurfacing giving people and the Government reason to feel worried.
The incident of stoning a shopkeeper to death at Nowhatta, armed attack on the Law Minister, Ali Mohd. Sagar, in interior of Srinagar and now the stoning of Molvi Umar's cavalcade at Sopore do suggest that vested interests were again busy in destabilising peace in Kashmir. |
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