Srinagar, July 30: The mainstream politicians including State Agriculture Minister and parliamentarians from New Delhi had to face a hostile audience during a day-long conference organized by Centre for Policy Analysis (CPA) here.
 The audience strongly objected to the remarks of State Agriculture Minister Ghulam Hassan Mir that ‘Kashmiris should not blame New Delhi for everything’ while referring to the house detention of Hurriyat (G) chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani. He said such decisions are taken by the state government and not the centre.
 The crowd interrupted Mir’s speech by raising slogans in favour of Geelani and against mainstream politicians.
 The pro-freedom sloganeering continued for more than five minutes forcing the organizers to intervene. However they couldn’t pacify the agitating youth who continued to shout slogans in favour of Geelani. Mir however did not leave the dice and continued with his speech.
 “Syed Ali Shah Geelani represents a voice and I too represent a voice,” Mir remarked.
 The situation was no different for another speaker, Congress leader Muhammad Muzaffar Parray. Sensing the mood of the audience, Parray’s entire speech was devoted to praising Syed Ali Shah Geelani. When Member of Parliament from Rashtriya Lok Dal, Shahid Siddiqui, spoke, commotion again broke out with the audience saying that ‘Indian leadership has deceived us for past 63 years.’
 “Don’t tell us about Bihar, this is Kashmir,” the angry youth shouted when Janta Dal (United) MP from Patna, Arjun Roy, was comparing situation of Kashmir with the rest of India.
 As the audience continued to create chaos, the announcement of host Seema Mustafa, that Geelani would arrive at the meet at 2:00 pm, pacified them to a large extent.
 When Geelani arrived at the venue, the auditorium of SP Higher Secondary School reverberated with slogans in his favour.
 Seema Mustafa quickly sought help of the aging pro-freedom leader to pacify the angry youth. “Sometimes slogans are not suitable,” Geelani said.
 However, MLA Langate Er Rashid was cheered by audience for his speech.

Lastupdate on : Sat, 30 Jul 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sat, 30 Jul 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Sun, 31 Jul 2011 00:00:00 IST