----------------------Maulana Shaukat assassination----------------------

Srinagar conclave wants militants, Police on board in probe

Geelani, Mirwaiz among panel of 10 to liaise with UJC, J&K Police

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Apr 18: In a significant and unprecedented development, an assembly of almost all separatist political and religious organisations in Kashmir valley today resolved to carry out a “credible and transparent investigation” into the assassination of Jamiat Ahl-e-Hadith (JAH) chief, Maulana Shaukat Ahmed Shah. According to a unanimously made decision, a 10-member panel, that includes Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani, would conduct the investigation in coordination with United Jihad Council (UJC) in Pakistan and the state Police in Kashmir.

Sources present in the three-hour-long closed-door meeting at JAH’s Barbarshah headquarters revealed to Early Times that most of the speakers sounded to be in favour of striking a balance. They deliberated at length on the cleric’s killing in an IED blast here on April 8^th and J&K Police’s claim of breakthrough, as announced by IGP Kashmir on April 16^th, and asserted that the Police investigation should neither be endorsed nor rejected at this stage. The speakers pointed out that categorical dismissal or acceptance of the findings could prove to be an impediment in the way of reaching the truth and identifying the killers.

The all-party conclave decided that the 10-member panel, to be headed by JAH incharge President Ghulam Rasool Malik, would establish contact with the J&K Police in Srinagar as well as the alliance of Kashmiri militant outfits in Pakistan and “Azad Kashmir” for collection and verification of the facts revolving around the slain cleric and his assassination at a mosque in Maisuma.

Sources said that JAH General Secretary Abdul Rehman Bhat, JKLF Chairman Yasin Malik, Jamaat-e-Islami chief Sheikh Mohammad Hassan, Anjuman Sharyee head Aga Syed Hassan, Anjuman Ittihadul Muslimeen chief Maulana Abbas Ansari, Islamic Study Circle representative Dr Yousaf-al-Umar and Maulvi Shaukat Ahmed Keng, were also appointed as members of the panel. One or two representatives of High Court Bar Association would also be included.

While as Maulana Ghulam Rasool Malik hosted the conference on behalf of JAH, it was, among others, attended by Chairman of so-called moderate faction of Hurriyat, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Chairman of JKLF, Mohammad Yasin Malik, President of Mustafa faction of Anjuman-e-Sharyee Shia’an, Aga Syed Hassan Al-Moosavi, President of Anjuman-e-Ittihad-ul-Muslimeen Maulana Abbas Ansari, Dr Yosuf-al-Umar, Maulvi Showkat Ahmad Keng, Hakim Abdur Rashid, Sayeed-ur-Rehman Shams, Dr Abdul Lateef, Mufti Yaqoob, and others.

Even as hardliner Geelani was not present, his faction of the Hurriyat was represented by his son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah. Head of right wing Jamaat-e-Islami in Jammu & Kashmir, Sheikh Ghulam Hassan, was also conspicuous by his presence.

Sources said that the speakers expressed concern over security perception of Kashmir’s separatist political and religious leaders in the light of Maulana Shaukat’s assassination. Interestingly, Police and other government agencies had made elaborate security arrangements for today’s conclave and quite a number of the guests treated Police as guards rather than “killers”---an allegation they have been facing in all mysterious killings in the state since 1989.

In sharp contrast to all previous assassinations, speakers at today’s separatist conference avoided accusations and negative references to Police and other government agencies, even as none of them did categorically endorse Police claim on the breakthrough. As already reported, Police has held an axis of radical groups and militant cadres responsible for the killing andclaimed to have arrested two of the killers. All the accused groups and individuals have dismissed the Police claim “baseless” and called it part of a vilification campaign to smear the Valley’s separatist movement.

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