'Hafta-e-Shuhada’
Is Commemorated From May 18 In The Valley Of Kashmir In The Memory Of ‘Shaheed-e-Hurriyat’
Khawaja Abdul Ghani Lone and ‘Shaheed-e-Millat’ Mirwaiz Maulvi Muhammad Farooq
Main
Points:
• Pakistani
media is agog with the news reports and propaganda on what it calls the
commemoration of the ‘Martyrdom Week’ or Hafta-e-Shahadat in Jammu &
Kashmir.
• It
tends to highlight the 16th martyrdom anniversary of Khawaja Abdul Ghani
Lone—who was killed by Hizbul Mujahidin—to manipulate this occasion, twist the
facts and incite retaliatory violence.
• But
these media outlets don’t reveal the real culprits and terrorists who crushed
down every voice of reason in the valley.
• Terror
groups have orchestrated the killings of moderate voices in the Kashmir—right
from Khawaja Abdul Ghani Lone to veteran Kashmiri journalist Syed Shujaat
Bukhari to the young lawyer and Sufi practitioner Babar Qadri.
• Pakistani
propagandists in the press have systematically played a pernicious role behind
several such ghastly attacks, incidents of brutal violence and fatal terrorism.
• Islamic
concept of ‘martyrdom’ has been indiscriminately misused by the media outlets
based in or backed by Pakistan to promote militancy in J&K.
• A
befitting tribute to Khawaja Abdul Ghani
Lone’s soul would be to uphold the cause of education and progression in the
valley rather than organise the ‘Martyrdom weeks’.
-----
New Age
Islam Special Correspondent
19 May 2021
‘Shaheed-e-Hurriyat’ Khawaja Abdul
Ghani Lone and ‘Shaheed-e-Millat’ Mirwaiz Maulvi Muhammad Farooq
-----
Every year,
an occasion called the ‘Martyrdom Week’, also known as ‘Hafta-e-Shuhada’ in
Urdu is commemorated from May 18 in the valley of Kashmir in the memory of
‘Shaheed-e-Hurriyat’ Khawaja Abdul Ghani Lone and ‘Shaheed-e-Millat’ Mirwaiz
Maulvi Muhammad Farooq. Pakistani media, both print and electronic, is agog
today with the news reports and propaganda promoting what it portrays as the
commemoration of the ‘Martyrdom Week’ or Hafta-e-Shahadat as an occasion of
retribution and vengeance in Jammu & Kashmir.
According
to Radio Pakistan, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) General Secretary
Molvi Bashir Ahmed has appealed to the people to observe complete shutdown on
the forthcoming Friday (May 21) to commemorate the martyrdom anniversaries of
prominent martyred Hurriyat leaders, Mirwaiz Maulvi Muhammad Farooq and Khawaja
Abdul Ghani Lone as well as the martyrs of Hawal.
Roznama
Nawa-i-Waqt, an Urdu daily in Pakistan flags in its report dated May 19: “JK
Salvation Movement and Voice of Victims have paid rich tributes to Kashmiri
martyrs Ab Ghani Bhat, Maulana Muhammad Farooq, Khawaja Abdul Ghani Lone and
Hawal martyrs on their martyrdom anniversary and said that their sacrifices
will not go in vain….. On the occasion, Qadeer Dar and Rouf Ahmad Khan paid
rich tributes to slain leaders and pledged to carry their mission till its
logical end.”
Thus, more
and more media outlets and Urdu press across the border tend to highlight the
16th martyrdom anniversary of Khawaja Abdul Ghani Lone—who was killed by Hizbul
Mujahidin—to manipulate this occasion and twist the facts and incite retaliatory violence and cross-border
terrorism in the valley.
But none of
these media outlets would tell the common people in Jammu & Kashmir about
the real culprits and terrorists who crushed down every voice of reason in the
valley. In 2011, almost two decades after the assassination of the Mirwaiz, a
prominent Hurriyat leader, Abdul Ghani Bhatt, admitted that the killing of many
Kashmiri leaders, including the Mirwaiz, Abdul Ghani Lone, his own brother
Mohammad Bhatt and Professor Wani was the handiwork of terrorists. "Lone
sahib, Mirwaiz Farooq and Prof. Wani were not killed by the army or the police.
They were targeted by our own people. The story is a long one, but we have, to
tell the truth," he said.
Before we proceed
ahead, let us take a look at the tragic assassination of Khawaja Abdul Ghani.
He was reportedly killed on 21 May 2002 while commemorating the 12th
anniversary of the death of another Kashmiri leader, Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq.
Just prior to his death, Lone had a dispute with the separatist leader and
Islamist hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani. While Lone pushed for the ouster of
foreign militants from the Kashmir valley, Geelani had always welcomed and
encouraged them. On 21 May 2002, earlier in the day a group of youths arrived
at the Eidgah, shouting pro-Pakistan slogans, and two of them fired on Lone and
he was shot dead. The then Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Farooq Abdullah
expressed deep sorrow over this brutal killing and called it a handiwork of
Pakistan. He was on record, saying: "Pakistan wants Kashmir and so is
desperate in its action, which this killing has proved." The then Prime
Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee was reported to have said: "Mr.
Lone was assassinated because he was working for peace in Jammu and
Kashmir." Even the US condemned the assassination and Secretary of State
Colin Powell issued a statement recognizing Lone as moderate who sought a
peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue.
Thus,
Pakistani terror groups orchestrate the killings of the moderate voices in the
valley of Kashmir—right from Khawaja Abdul Ghani Lone to veteran Kashmiri
journalist Syed Shujaat Bukhari to the young lawyer and Sufi practitioner Babar
Qadri—and then the Pakistani media and propagandists commemorate their
assassinations as the ‘Martyrdom Week’ inciting the militants to wreak more
violence and reiteration in the valley. This is the pernicious role that the
Pakistani propagandists in the press have systematically played behind several
major ghastly attacks, incidents of brutal violence and fatal terrorism.
According to Majid Hyderi, a journalist based in Kashmir, a Pakistan-based
terror portal linked to the assassination of journalist Shujaat Bukhari had
also targeted Babar Qadri in its hateful and incitary articles. “Interestingly,
while the terror portal had posted only one article against Shujaat Bukhari
before his assassination, two similar hate pieces had been pitched against
Babar back-to-back in June that year”, Hyderi notes. (Source: dailyo.in/politics/babar-qadri-shujaat-bukhari-militancy-kashmir/story/1/33676.html)
Most
worryingly, the Islamic concept of ‘martyrdom’ has been most misused in this
context. Media outlets based in or backed by Pakistan promote jihadist
militancy in Kashmir through proliferation of articles on Islamic martyrdom on
occasions like this. They choose to popularize a twisted understanding of this
Islamic doctrine by painting the terror incidents like this as the ‘Martyrdom
Week’ much in the same way as it promulgates other occasions like Kashmir
Solidarity Day (February 5) or the commemoration of an Islamic battle—Ghazwatul
Badr known as Jang-e-Badr in Urdu which has been one of the most misused events
to incite terror attacks in the valley. With a wilful misinterpretation, the
Islamic doctrine of martyrdom is proliferated in the Kashmir valley
particularly on occasions like this, as
a call to arms and retaliation.
The
proponents of false Islamic martyrdom lure the naïve, underprivileged and
gullible Muslim youth in the Kashmir valley and indoctrinate them into
believing that martyrdom means serving as human bombs. Such extremist rhetoric
of the martyrdom in order to seek false religious legitimacy for violence and retaliation is
not only haram (strongly forbidden) in Islam but also akin to Kufr
(infidelity). It goes strictly against the true Islamic principles of
reconciliation (Musalahat) during the wars. But the extremist Pakistani
propagandists resort to the radical concepts like Shahadat (martyrdom)
which is conducive to this predicament, supplemented by the ignorance of
separatist Kashmiri leaders who put a poisonous seed in the minds of the youth.
In all this brainless rhetoric of retribution, Kashmiri civilians and youths
pay the price and bear the brunt.
It was a
long-cherished dream of the late Khawaja Abdul Ghani to see Kashmiri
people especially the youth and
daughters of the valley being well educated and with a progressive outlook. He
used to emphasise Islam’s stress upon pursuing education and acquiring
knowledge for the cause of both this world and the hereafter. The most
befitting tribute to his soul would be uphold the cause of education and
progression in the valley rather than waste energy in organising the ‘Martyrdom
weeks’ and taking out rallies and aggressive protests on such occasions.
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