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| Hurriyat's 18-sky fall in 18 years | | Attack on one-time 'Nelson Mandela of Kashmir' and 'Prisoner of Conscience' at Dastgeer Saheb can't be a non-event | | Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
SRINAGAR, June 30: Kashmir's politicians have been excitingly fond of getting themselves honoured at the shrines of Sufi saints.Dastaarbandi, in fact, has grown a popular ritual since the 20thcentury icon Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah discovered the art of impressing his masses from shrines and mosques. Till his death in 1982, Sheikh retained the distinction of being one among the few political leaders who were never heckled and booed---not even in the most hostile environs of the infamous Sher-Bakra street skirmishes.
In 1987-88, even the charismatic Mirwaiz Farooq became a target of the peoples' wrath, first at an invitation in Nowhatta and later at a religious congregation at Iddgah. The advent of insurgency benumbed all hands and tongues in 1990. Kashmiris put turbans on heads of their politicians---and sometimes removed them soon disgracefully---even through the somber years of turmoil and mayhem.
On at least one occasion at Chrar-e-Sharief in 1996, there were slogans, amid tossing of Kangris: "Gaalli galli mein shaur hai, Hurriyat wale chor hain". But the way Shabir Shah, one of the Valley's senior most separatist leaders, was subjected to assault and humiliation in foreground of the devastated shrine at Khanyar last week, goes unprecedented. There have been infighting and assaults in the past but smearing the face of a political opponent and tearing his outfits off has been witnessed arguably for the first time.
Since the strike of ignominy has happened with no less a person than Shabir Shah, who, in yesteryears, came to be romantically known as "Prisoner of Conscience" and attained the sobriquet of "Nelson Mandela of Kashmir", it has perplex the state's political observers. The questions in the air are galore: Was that a murderous assault from the die-hard followers of Ali Mohammad Sagar? Did Mirwaiz Umar settle his political score and teach Shah a lesson of challenging his influence and authority? Was that the handiwork of an Indian agency to generate infighting among the separatists? Was that a spontaneous emotional outburst and the wild, anarchic expression of Srinagar's frustrated Generation-3?
Irrespective of what precisely it was, the attack on Shah by apparently non-Ikhwani crowds marks a political watershed at the end of 22nd year of the Valley's separatist movement. By underplaying it or ignoring it completely and by suppressing the horrible picture and publishing merely condemnations, media could attract the accusation of subjectivity. Critics outside Kashmir have been already dismissing it as 'resistance media' and the 'media of double standards'. Their question: Had it happened with Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah, Mufti Sayeed, Mehbooba Mufti, Ghulam Nabi Azad or Saif-ud-din Soz, would there have been this treatment?
Interestingly, just a nondescript daily carried Shah's unenviable image next day. The political tragicomedy remained but a fun for the unbridled social media. Arguably, none among the mainstream politicians could afford this privilege of total blackout as newspapers and television channels in this country, including in J&K, have had their tongues wagging for all state actors.
As the much fragmented Hurriyat has ended up a house in abject disorder and Police have more important business of identifying the saboteurs of the revered shrine in hand, nobody would ordinarily know who thrashed and slurred Shah. Reports of Shah's longtime associate Nayeem Khan too having shared part of the assault, before his escape, have not been denied.
Founder-leaders of People’s League, Shabir Shah and Nayeem Khan enjoy the distinction of being older than the iconic Syed Ali Shah Geelani in Kashmir's secessionist politics. When Geelani was contesting Assembly and Lok Sabha elections with the oath of protecting India's sovereignty and integrity, Shah and Khan were busy in underground activity of dismantling liquor shops, closing down cinema and coining pro-Pakistan slogans. They created the first major scene with waving of the Pakistani flags at Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium, Sonwar, when an India-Australia test match was in progress, in 1983. Death of Shah's father, Ghulam Mohammad Shah, at the hands of Police on April 4th in 1989 sent shockwaves throughout the Valley.
And when the underground pair, later that year, walked accidentally straight into a Police trap while driving to Jammu, life screeched to a halt in Valley. The shutdown without anybody's call was a blinker, indicating the history's lowest voter turnout of 5% in the Lok Sabha election, just four months away. That time around, Geelani was for the first time directly baptized into secessionist politics, alongwith three of his Muslim United Front (MUF) fellow MLAs, including Shah's brother, Sayeed Shah, who resigned days before the armed struggle sprouted with a big bang with the kidnapping of then union Home Minister Mufti Sayeed's daughter Rubaiya.
By the time Shah and Khan 'walked to freedom' from two separate jails in 1994, Kashmir had become a Pakistan without declaration. Geelani had been released in April 1992 and he had begun to spurn every Indian but the title of 'ex-MLA' had not gone from his nameplate. Later, he stormed into the secessionist politics in a big way and eclipsed all, including Shah and Khan, on the spectrum of Azadi.
Every inch of space at Lalchowk was filled up by over 80,000 of Shah's enthusiastic 'freedom-lovers'. His rally from Jammu to Srinagar was strikingly reminiscent of Sheikh Abdullah's heroic arrival in Srinagar, after Indira-Abdullah Accord, in 1975. It was a historic red carpet welcome, humbling the legendary JKLF chief Yasin Malik's release and return to home with a modest Maisuma caravan in 1993.
"My first and foremost agenda", Shah told the multitude of his followers that evening in August 1994, "is to reunite all leaders of the freedom struggle". "It is the rosary of a hundred beads, but all scattered and in disarray. I'll go door-to-door with my needle and the thread. You'll soon find it back as a complete rosary of leadership", he asserted to a standing ovation and zindabad slogans from his audience. Hurriyat was just one-year-old. Paradoxically, this great zealous binder was himself thrown out of the fold next year when he insisted Hurriyat grant an appointment to the suppliant American Ambassador, Frank Wisner.
On the eve of the first post-militancy elections in 1996, union Home Secretary Padmanabhaiah told The Pioneer that Shah was "an undependable politician", generating speculations of the separatist's commitment of participating in the political process. Padmanabhaiah's observation came in days of Shah ruling out his interest in electoral politics.
On completing 10 years of its tender age in 2003, Hurriyat split into the two principal factions led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Geelani. Like Malik's JKLF, Shah and his Peoples League were too confused to embrace one.
Later, Shah repeated his attempts of unifying the Hurriyat but, worse than the Bar Association, he met with failure each time. In the last five years, however, Shah has regained his importance with his dignified return into the Hurriyat (Mirwaiz), though his loyalty to hardliner Geelani has been an open secret all through the street turbulence in 2008 and 2010. Since last month, he has been assertively gunning for Prof Gani Bhat for the latter's purported--- and, finally denied--- anti-UN resolution remarks. He even confronted Bilal Lone and Chairman Mirwaiz---the only separatist leader who, after Geelani, has a solid electoral footing---accusing both of being 'soft' and permissive to Bhat's escapades.
Amid rumours that the Khanyar stage had been actually set for Geelani, Shah has claimed to have identified the assailants. Even if Shah alone was the target, it must be pathetically sad for the kings of Kashmir's separatist movement to find their own followers and their nihilistic offspring involved in a broad daylight assault on an icon of Azadi. This being the reality, something serious has gone wrong in the way of spearheading a perennially popular political movement. Visibly building fortunes and accepting Police and CRPF protection could be undoubtedly one of the many reasons.
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