Geelani serves ultimatum over Dogra Certificate

‘Revoke order by April 30th or face consequences’

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Apr 18: Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani today served ultimatum on Omar Abdullah-led coalition government and threatened to launch a mass agitation in case recent order on issuance of Dogra Certificate was not withdrawn by April 30^th.

In his key address at a seminar on “Dogra Certificate Ka Kya Jawaaz?” at his Hydeprora residence here, Geelani dismissed the state Revenue Ministry’s order dated March 25^th as a “well-conceived plot to neutralize the identity of Muslim community in Jammu and merge it with the Dogra identity”. He denigrated the coalition government as “New Delhi’s puppet” and alleged that the identity and cultural aggression in Jammu & Kashmir was “New Delhi’s brainchild”.

 “The RSS wants to divide Jammu and Kashmir on religious lines and bring home to the world that the Kashmir movement is restricted to just a section of the area and population”, Geelani asserted. He called upon the people in entire state to register their protest against the government move and convey to the world that all three regions of the state - Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh - were united in their fight against “India’s autocratic rule”.

Chairman of the hardline faction of the separatist Hurriyat Conference, Geelani made it clear the Kashmiris’ demand was total revocation of the order rather than its modifications.  “If it is not revoked till April end, we will make strategy to counter it in first week of May,” he warned. He alleged that the Indian authorities were “using brute force to suppress the ongoing peaceful liberation movement in Kashmir.

On interlocutors’ arrival in Kashmir, he said, “On one hand India talks of peace and at the same time its troops are illegally detaining innocent Kashmiris including minors under the draconian law, Public Safety Act, and lodging them in far-flung jails. They (interlocutors) have come here to delay the resolution of Kashmir issue which seems to be their basic objective.”

Commenting over the situation after the assassination of Jamait-e Ahli Hadith president, Maulana Shaukat Ahmad Shah, Geelani said: “In the last two decades, unidentified gunmen are active in Kashmir and they have killed hundreds of innocent Kashmiris. Some of these killers even managed their entry into the state Assembly”. It was obviously Geelani’s veiled reference to the founder of counter-insurgency, Kukka Parray, who got hundreds of militants eliminated by security forces till he contested 1996 Assembly elections and became an MLA for the next six years. Geelani claimed that Kashmir’s freedom struggle was completely peaceful.

“We aren’t in a position to fight with the Indian military, but we will continue our just struggle peacefully. We are politically engaged in a war with India. The only difference is that we don’t have guns or bombs in our hands,” he said. He quickly clarified that his Hurriyat had no differences with militants and both were pursuing the same goal of “winning freedom for Kashmir”,  

“We don’t oppose militant organizations as they have their own role to play. But we want to carry forward our struggle peacefully,” he added. He said that the people of Kashmir were not being allowed a space for expression “by the occupational authorities” to even peacefully raise their voice against the Indian oppression. “Since 2010, I have been confined to my house by the Indian Police,” Gilani complained.

Earlier, Dr Javed Iqbal, Abdul Hamid Zarger, Altaf Hussain Nadvi, Advocate Mohammad Shafi Reshi, Mohammad Shafi Lone besides the specially drawn activists from Jammu, namely Qazi Asgar Poonchi and Mohammad Sharief Sartaj also delivered speeches at the seminar.

END