After five days of intense unrest which almost threatened to plunge Kashmir into an extended turmoil, Valley is back to normal. The discourse is now fast shifting towards rebuilding the gutted Pir Dastgeer shrine at Khanyar. And its one example is the Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq calling for rejection of the centre’s aid in the reconstruction of shrine. Mirwaiz wants the rebuilding exercise to be a local community effort. This rebuilding debate is only going to grow with time. And it is desirable that the society at large gets involved in the exercise. The shrine has been our spiritual refuge for the past 200 years and its reconstruction will be a sacred community activity. It will also be like filling a deep spiritual void in our community life. Dastgeer Sahab shrine is located in the heart of Srinagar and in many ways had become a hallowed spiritual centre for the Valley. By rebuilding the shrine in all its majesty, we will be restoring to ourselves a part of our religious and cultural identity. But while we get involved in the reconstruction of this great spiritual abode, we also need to objectively analyze the cause of fire. Over the past week, there have been some deliberate incidents to aggravate the situation that call for our attention. There is a certain pattern that is emerging about the attacks on religious places and books. We have witnessed a series of provocations designed to hurt religious sentiments. It started at Gurez and ended at Lawaypora. There is a clear but invisible hand at work with an objective to throw Valley into turmoil.  At a time when Valley has got back to normal and thereby defeated the nefarious agenda of these forces, there is a need to pause and ponder the conspiracy at work. Some shadowy forces seem hell-bent on dividing Kashmir on sectarian lines. We not only need to expose them but also send a strong message that there is no way such conspiracies will ever succeed in Valley.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 1 Jul 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 1 Jul 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 2 Jul 2012 00:00:00 IST