Lest we forget… it was on May 21, 1990, when Mirwaiz Molvi Muhammad Farooq — the then Mirwaiz of Kashmir, and father of incumbent Mirwaiz (Umar Farooq) —was assassinated at his Nigeen residence.
Since then, the Awami Action Committee, which the late Mirwaiz founded, has been calling for a shutdown on this day to commemorate his death anniversary.
When the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) came into being in March 1993, it also started calling for a shutdown on May 21 on late Mirwaiz’s death anniversary. While common people were asked to observe ‘Hartal’ (shutdown), which they did so obediently, the APHC itself would hold some ‘grand event’ in connection with the anniversary and pay tributes to Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq.
On May 21, 2002, the APHC — which had by now two separate factions led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani respectively — had given ‘Eidgah Chalo’ (march to Eidgah) call in connection with the death anniversary. It was during this congregation that another APHC leader, and founder of Peoples Conference, Abdul Gani Lone, was assassinated right inside the Eidgah grounds where a large number of people had assembled on Hurriyat’s call.
After May 2002, APHC has been calling for a shutdown every year on May 21 to commemorate the death anniversaries of Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone.
This is the history of the day.
This week also (on Wednesday, May 18, 2022), the Hurriyat Conference (APHC) headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq called for a ‘bandh’ (shutdown) in Kashmir to pay tributes to Moulvi Mohammad Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone on their death anniversary on May 21.
The separatist amalgam asked people to visit Eidgah, where the two leaders have been laid to rest, and offer prayers for them.
Now, this call for a shutdown on this day has all along been a routine, a standard procedure, for the separatist amalgam. In the changed political circumstance of Kashmir after August 2019, May 21 presents one of the rare occasions and opportunities for the Hurriyat Conference to signal its existence.
Generally speaking, any activity by the separatists, and more so their public calls for shutdowns, have always been a sort of red rag for the state and its security apparatus. They would ideally want the people to not heed such calls, for the reason that the separatists have always appropriated public response to their calls as an index for gauging their sway on the public mood and ‘sentiment’. However, in May 21 context, the call for a shutdown could be viewed differently.
Here is why
Let’s begin by saying that nobody could and no one should ever condone any killing, including the political assassinations. So the murders of Mirwaiz Moulvi Mohammad Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone are atrocious, and condemnable, and must be condemned by all. But so are the other killings that Kashmir has seen in hundreds in the past over three decades of violence. All those murders which have been, and are still being committed for political reasons, deserve condemnation — loud, swift, and unequivocal.
And, the victims of these senseless acts of violence, and their kin deserve sympathy. This has to be done upfront and above board. Scorn for the perpetrators and sympathies for the victims cannot be subject to selectivity – we cannot condemn one murder and condone another, nor could there be empathy and compassion for some victims, and coldness or lack of remorse for some others’ similar misery.
What, May we ask, is the biggest tribute one could pay to the victim of an assassin’s bullet? Pray as much one may for peace and salvation to the departed soul in the hereafter, but each victim’s kin, their families, friends and acquaintances, as well as the larger society, also needs some sort of closure so as to be able to deliver them from the haunting memory of what has befallen their dear ones.
This will come by way of naming and blaming the perpetrators. People need to be told who killed whom and why — a means of catharsis for them to heal their personal and collective wounds.
Coming to the May 21 commemoration – obviously, a call for a shutdown has been given to protest what happened on this day (May 21) in 1990 – the murder of Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq; and then again in 2002, the murder of Abdul Gani Lone. But, at the same time, it is, should be, also a day to protest against those who carried out these murders. It is, will, and should be, also a protest against those who ordered these murders. It is, will, and should be, also a protest against the politics that led to, and condones these, and all other such murders….
Asking people to observe a shutdown to pay tributes to one’s slain father makes sense only when the son himself has the courage to publicly name and blame the killers of his father. But even this minimum has not happened so far, which is unfortunate, and smacks of hypocrisy!
Tailpiece
The structural violence woven into the political systems here has for years kept Kashmir’s population atop the ‘anger mountain’, but those who have, deliberately or by default, facilitated this adrenaline rush in the public’s bloodstream, remain plagued by a terrible sense of disorientation. This is true of leaders on both sides of the political divide. People no doubt lament the current situational crisis, but are hard at understanding and articulating how to go about from here.
For the past several years, political leaders here have only maintained some relevance for themselves and their politics. And for this, they employ a whole lot of theatrics. There are some who have silenced themselves and spent their lives in a privileged cocoon from where, they once in a while make huge statements, either directly before the media persons of their choice, or through Twitter to signal that they are still in the game. Still, others have taken recourse to feign restrictions on their movement to conveniently avoid facing the public. This maze of contradictions emanating from the people at the so-called apex of Kashmir’s politics is so disconcerting that it is a reason and cause of popular disillusionment and negativism with politics and political leaders here.
Relevant links and articles:
https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/entertainment/2045755-shutdown-in-parts-of-srinagar
https://thekashmirwalla.com/my-father-was-killed-for-saying-what-he-believed-in-says-sajad-lone/
https://kashmirlife.net/did-mirwaiz-play-down-life-threats-79383/
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