Recent appeal to people by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, for not damaging public property and holding peaceful demonstrations is neither new nor made by him for the first time as projected by Indian media. Sadly it’s been misinterpreted by New Delhi as a possible shift or change of his mind. He has in fact all the time appealed rather requested people to remain peaceful during the protest demonstration and has time and again appealed people not even to raise provocative slogans.
 It seems some Indian leaders under frustration started giving credit to this Kashmiri leader. Humble appeal by Geelani Sahib to nation has to be taken seriously by people or otherwise we are going to face a mess in coming days. People should keep in mind that if they do not respect and adhere to his appeal then there opportunist politicians will sure declare us as a leaderless nation as is being aired these days in media. Already there is a rumor and allegations that some elements from the out of power mainstream party is mixed with the crowd to turn  peaceful protests violent so that they quit their own scores with NC government.
 Under these circumstances if one does not respect and obey the appeal made by Geelani Sahib and other leaders then it can be assumed that those elements who violate the appeal are by no means well wishers of Kashmiris and should be identified and removed from the crowd  in peace protests by the people themselves. We can’t afford to be leaderless. Islam also teaches us to make one among two as “Amir” for decision making and to obey him and maintain discipline.
 One can have difference of opinion with Geelani Sahib and with other leaders over various issues but fact of the matter is that Geelani Sahib has emerged a man of principles and integrity always.
 So India takes his statement as something new, it speaks of their dubiousness and nothing else.

Dr.Tanveer Ahmad Khan
Qatar National University,Doha
kashmirbreeze@gmail.com)

Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Aug 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 7 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 8 Aug 2010 00:00:00 IST