First time salvo from NC: Kamaal calls Geelani ‘traitor, trader of death and destruction’

Sheikh Abdullah’s son shifts fire from Gupkar Road to Hyderpora, Congress, trains his gun on firebrand Hurriyat chief

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

SRINAGAR, Jul 15: Apparently stung by a hardline separatist leader’s tirade against his father and founder of the mainstream National Conference (NC) Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, Dr Mustafa Kamaal has spewed a full volley of venom on Hurriyat (G) Chairman and former Jamaat-e-Islami ideologue Syed Ali Shah Geelani. It is for the first time, not only in the last 42 months of Omar Abdullah government but also in 23 years of the armed strike in Kashmir, that a mainstream politician has mustered courage to publicly denigrate the octogenarian separatist icon as a “traitor”, “ISI agent” and “trader of death and destruction”.   

In a statement, characteristic of his virulence against the Sheikh dynasty on anniversary of the Kashmiri martyrs of July 13, 1931, Geelani had accused the NC founder as being “power hungry” and betrayed the people of the state.

Dr Kamaal, NC’s additional General Secretary and MLA from Hazratbal called Geelani “a four time MLA, who has been drawing pension and has been even on the payroll of ISI”.  “Should we consider him fit enough to talk about morality?” Kamaal asked.

“Whenever even a Pakistani clerk comes to India and summons this former legislator, he rushes to Delhi to take dictation about how to sustain uncertainty and turbulence in the state” said Kamaal. He alleged that Geelani was directly responsible for over a hundred civilian deaths in Police action as it was he who had provoked youngsters to resort to violence and stone pelting in the year 2010.

Kamal said Geelani had all along tried to ignite and incite people with hollow slogans and destructive emotionalism. “But the Kashmiris do now understand his duplicity and personal vengeance against Sher-i-Kashmir and National Conference”, he asserted.

“People haven’t forgotten how he has been the recipient of illegal munificence from sources inimical to Kashmir including the UK based Kashmiri expatriates” Dr Kamaal said about Geelani in the fiery statement.

“Had Sher-e-Kashmir been power hungry, he wouldn’t have spent 24 years of his life in jail”, Dr Kamaal said about his father who campaigned for terminating monarchy, spearheaded a separatist movement for 22 years and functioned as head of the government for 12 years. “Sher-i-Kashmir never compromised his principles while as Geelani as a Muslim United Front MLA, along with his associates and 18 councilors, preferred luxuries of the government but never thought of the people?  Why didn’t they resign then,” Kamaal asked.

“Supporting in the elections the people who were responsible for the massacre of innocent civilians at Gawkadal, and the carnage at a funeral procession that mourned Mirwaiz Farooq’s death in firing,  indicates the direction of Geelani’s loyalties”, Dr Kamaal said and questioned the Hurriyat chief’s credentials of berating Sheikh Abdullah.

“From a small hut near Wullar to a small little house in Sopore to a palatial building in the posh Hyderpora, this leader has only grown by his bank balance” Kamal said. “Now this ex-legislator has the audacity to don the mantle of a messiah” he added.

NC’s additional General Secretary said that the rights of the people of J&K have been protected by the instrument of accession which clearly mentions that nothing in the instrument shall be deemed to commit me in any way to acceptance of any future constitution of India or to fetter my discretion to enter into arrangements with the Government of India under any such future Constitutor.

“These opportunistic leaders like Geelani have all along come in different faces to weaken NC and state’s special status”, Kamaal said. “If these  leaders had their way, they would have abrogated article 370 long back” he asserted. Kamal reiterated Chief Minister Omar Abdullah’s challenge to Geelani to raise the issue of non-state subjects continuously being settled by Pakistan in PaK.

“Kashmiri Pandits are part and parcel of the state and we will not sit in rest until we ensure their return to their homeland with full sense of security and dignity”, Dr Kamaal said. “People like Geelani have all along tried to dilute and weaken the concept of Kashmiriyat” he concluded.

END