In what may be seen as a major snub to the separatist leadership of Jammu and Kashmir, a gathering of Muslim clerics and scholars called by the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind (JuH) on Sunday has said that while the legitimate demands of the Kashmiri people must be accepted, these must be within the Indian constitutional framework.
While Hurriyat Conference hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani and its moderate face, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq have been pushing their demand for the Kashmiris right to self-determination, the Jamiat in a resolution passed on Sunday said there is a need to thwart enemy forces “bent upon (the) disintegration of Kashmir”. It also blamed the Central and state governments for failing to maintain peace in the Valley.
The Jamiat gathering, which was held on Sunday in Deoband, the seat of the influential Islamic seminary Darul-Uloom, saw hundreds of clerics and scholars in attendance. The Jamiat said that representatives from nearly 3,000 madrasas across the country also participated in the conference.
The Jamiat, in a resolution passed at the end of the day-long conference, extended support to the Kashmiri people, particularly in the wake of the recent turmoil that the Kashmir Valley has been going through. However, it was at pains to say that it did not wish to give the issue any religious overtones. Significantly, it also said that it did not consider the interests of the Kashmiri people as separate from the interests of Indian Muslims.
As Niaz Ahmed Farooqui, secretary of the Jamiat told this newspaper on Sunday, “Kashmir has never been a religious issue. Though the Valley has a Muslim majority, it has never been a communally sensitive area.” However, he said that the state’s “separation” from India would affect the country’s entire Muslim community.
Mr Farooqui said that while Deoband was chosen as a venue only because the Jamiat was unable to find a suitable venue in the capital owing to the ongoing Commonwealth Games, it held a conference in view of the “serious situation” in the Valley and the need to “intervene urgently”. He added, “Our focus was on the suffering of the people.”
Today’s resolution, while expressing solidarity with the Kashmiri people, also said, “We do not consider the interests of the Kashmiri people separate from the interests of Indian Muslim.” At the same time, the resolution warded that the “use of power to repress the anguish of citizens would not help” and that it would only “fuel (the) separatist mindset”.
Among the demands put forth in the resolution passed at the end of the conference are the revocation of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), the withdrawal of armed forces from the Valley and the freeing of protesters “nabbed without a viable reason”. At the same time, it wants protesters to use peaceful and democratic means for demanding their rights and to abjure violence.