Early Saturday All India Radio broadcast news that while most parts of the country were seething under intense heat, Kashmir valley is all cool and there are places in the valley which are experiencing chill. The news item had details about highest and lowest temperatures in different places across India with Srinagar and Pehalgam registering day time highest temperatures of 18 degrees and 12 degrees celsius respectively. The item also had a small detail about the unprecedented rush of tourists witnessed by the valley these days saying hotels, Houseboats and Shikara wallas were doing good business. The same afternoon things went topsy-turvy as angry youths went on a rampage in the city throwing life out of gear. Perhaps the morning news bulletin of All India Radio was not liked by some agency or some group  so they thought of putting the valley on fire by playing with religious sentiments of the gullible. What was floated is too abominable to be described here. Such cheap tactics appear cheaper when given a language. Intriguingly para militaries did not act and did not stop the irate mob from moving ahead. The police also did not show its existence till it was late. It was only after the entire traffic was thrown in a chaos that the police gathered its act together and chased away the protesters. The police could realize the gravity of the situation only when the trouble started spilling over towards the Sangarmaal Complex which was scheduled to be inaugurated by the Chief Minister in the evening. The mischief had worked on some credulous minds and as such no amount of explanation could satisfy the irate youth. Mercifully nobody was wounded even though some vehicles suffered damage in the stone pelting by an angry group of protestors. We have to be very cautious while responding to such mischiefs. Have we not seen in the recent past how different forces worked to divert Kashmir-bound tourists to other destinations? Can’t our community leaders read through such machinations by the elements inimical to peace here? It would be too naive to believe that the leadership here does not understand the importance of economic freedom for the survival of the people? It is really shocking to know that a large section of our youth is ignorant and gullible to an extent as to fail to draw a distinction between the imprints or pictures of their own religious places and that of other civilizations and people. That explains that how the mischief mongers could stir the passions of youth here by describing an imprint of the building of the Academy of Fine Arts, Florence, Italy on an under garment as that of a holy Islamic site. From the chain of incidents taking place in the valley in recent days, it is evident that there are forces out there to disturb peace. May be it is a tactic of diversion adopted by the groups which are not feeling comfortable with recent exposures. That we leave to the state and union government to decipher. Here we would like the people and the responsible citizens and leaders to be on guard against such mischief that could further help the enemies of Kashmir and its people to paint them black. CM Omar Abdullah is right in affirming that Islam is not as weak as to fall to the machinations of forces inimical to it. It has withstood onslaughts from all the earthly powerful forces from time to time. Yes, they could succeed in driving a divide or two in its followers but failed to destroy the faith or root it out. There is no doubt in the fact that some people around the globe have been working overtime to hurt the Muslim feelings and provoke them to react violently and then describe them as terrorists. The sacrilegious acts could not destroy the faith so can no power on earth do so. We know how Muslims were suppressed in the now dismembered USSR but with all its force Stalin and his successive regimes could not destroy the faith. Islam is infallible no matter how much the forces inimical to it strive or use unethical methods to hurt the feelings of its followers. They fear the strength of Islam. We must be vigilant against all such forces and stand united.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 6 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 6 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 7 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST