Pro-freedom leaders and parties have paid glowing tributes to Muhammad Maqbool Bhat and Muhammad Afzal Guru on their anniversaries, reiterating their demand for the return of their mortal remains to Kashmir from Tihar Jail, New Delhi, where they were executed and their bodies buried.
Muhammad Maqbool Bhat was executed on February 11, 1984, and Muhammad Afzal Guru on February 9, 2013, in Tihar Jail, New Delhi. The bodies of both Bhat and Guru were buried in the premises of Tihar Jail.
Paying rich tributes to both the slain leaders and demanding return of their mortal remains, the Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman Syed Ali Geelani, in a statement said, “Although it is purely a human issue but Delhi is very reluctant to this demand thereby violating all the principles of morality and constitution.”
Geelani said, “Muhammad Maqbool Bhat and Muhammad Afzal Guru are heroes of the Kashmiri nation and we are proud of them. Kashmiri nation has been resisting the forced control of the state for the past 71 years and during this period thousands of our valiant and bold people have sacrificed their precious lives for this cause but Bhat and Guru are two separate cases among these who were detained, executed and buried in the same jail and in same month.”
Geelnai said, “Bhat has a special status in the Kashmir struggle and if he can be termed as the first soldier of the struggle then the Guru’s last letter became a new milestone of the struggle and set a new trend. His last letter clearly depicts that he was an ideological person and his emotions were having the backing of faith, intellect and conscience.”
“They are source of inspiration for us the best way of paying tributes to them is that the nation should not forget these brave sons of the soil, who sacrificed their present for the future of the nation,” Geelani said, adding that “Until the mortal remains are returned to their families, the whole nation will continue to demand for it.”
The incarcerated chairman of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front Muhammad Yasin Malik, in his message, paid rich tributes to Muhammad Maqbool Bhat and Muhammad Afzal Guru, demanding return of their mortal remains for dignified burial. “We appeal people to follow the programme announced by the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) on the anniversaries of martyrs, Muhammad Maqbool Bhat and Muhammad Afzal Guru,” a JKLF spokesman quoted incarcerated Yasin Malik as having said, in his message from Police Station, Kothi Bagh, here.
Yasin Malik said, “Father of Kashmiri nation Muhammad Maqbool Butt is the corner stone of our resistance against forcible control and symbol of freedom and liberty. His struggle and sacrifices represent every oppressed and subjugated human. Muhammad Afzal Guru also treaded his path and sacrificed his life for the righteous cause.”
“Muhammad Maqbool Butt was an ideologue, a warrior, a leader and an intellectual who led Kashmiris on all fronts, be it diplomatic front, armed, political or intellectual front. He started as a loner and strived hard for the liberation of his nation,” Malik said.
“Struggle and martyrdom of Muhammad Maqbool Butt is a glorious chapter of our history that will always guide us through the tough journey of our struggle and us as a nation need to follow his footsteps and remain steadfast in our resistance against tyranny and oppression,” Yasin Malik said.
JKLF chairman said, “On February 11, 1984, rulers decided to hang this leader and thus choke a Kashmiri voice for freedom in gallows in Tihar Jail Delhi but time has proved that Delhi failed to achieve this goal as thousands of new Maqbool’s originated from his sacred blood and came out from every Kashmiri village and town to challenge Delhi’s hegemony and control.”
Paying glowing tributes to Muhammad Afzal Guru, who kissed gallows in same Tihar Jail on February 9, 2013, the JKLF chairman said, “He was hanged to satisfy so-called collective conscience. This Kashmiri youth was denied a fair trial like Maqbool Butt and buried inside the same jail and till date Kashmiris living across the artificial dividing line and in the whole world are demanding the return of their mortal remains. ”
Terming the hanging of Afzal Guru as ‘travesty of justice’, Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (the) chairman Muhammad Ashraf Sehrai, in a statement, said, “Guru’s execution was carried out to appease the communal fascist forces. He had no lawyer to represent him when the trial court convicted him without any direct evidence and yet the Supreme Court upheld the death penalty in the name of satisfying ‘the collective conscience of society’ even as the High Court and the Supreme Court passed adverse remarks on the shoddy nature of investigation and dubious quality of evidence produced by the police.”
“The hanging of Afzal Guru at the crack of dawn on February 9, 2013, done in an extremely secretive manner without even informing his family, will be recognized by every justice-loving person as a case of justice being compromised to appease the communal fascist forces with an eye on the elections,” Sehrai said.
He said, “Guru’s mercy petition, which was pending with the then President for long was finally rejected and even before the family of Afzal Guru could get a chance to appeal against the turning down of plea for clemency, Guru was hanged.”
Kashmir High Court Bar Association (HCBA), at a meeting of its executive council, paid glowing tributes to Muhammad Maqbool Bhat and Muhammad Afzal Guru.
“Both these martyred leaders infused a new life into Kashmir struggle and it is because of these sacrifices that Kashmir issue is discussed in all the international forums and everyone is demanding that Kashmiris should be given their right of self- determination as promised and guaranteed by 28TH Security Resolution Councils passed from time to time beginning from January 1948,” the HCBA spokesman quoted the speakers as having said at the meeting.
The spokesman said, “It was also decided in the executive meeting to support the boycott call given by the Joint Resistance Leadership (JRL) and all the lawyers are requested not to attend the courts on 9 and 11 February.”
A spokesman of Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), while paying homage to Maqbool Bhat and Afzal Guru said: “Both the martyrs are glorious chapters of our resistance history. New Delhi not only hanged the two great sons of the Kashmiri soil, but also has kept their mortal remains under its custody. Kashmiri people will continue to demand for their political rights and the mortal remains of their two great national heroes.”
Remembering Muhammad Afzal Guru and Muhammad Maqbool Bhat on their anniversaries, Jammu Kashmir National Front (NF) spokesman, in a statement said, “Kashmir resistance history is full of the stories of brave hearts who are the real heroes of our nation. Both these heroes were hanged by the authorities through different conspiracies hatched against them at two different times.”
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front ( R) leaders Barrister Abdul Majid Trambu , advocate Ayoub Rathor and Wajahat Bashir Qureshi, while praying tributes to both Muhammad Maqbool Bhat and Muhammad Afzal Guru, in a statement said, “Very few people have the heart to venture against the wind. Maqbool Bhat, Afzal Guru and other martyrs of Kashmir laid down their lives for the honor and dignity of the common man of Kashmir.”
Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (H) chairman Javaid Ahmad Mir, while paying rich tributes to both Muhammad Maqbool Bhat and Muhammad Afzal Guru, demanded return of their mortal remains.
“The JKLF (H) leaders have launched a signature campaign in South Kashmir Kulgam and Islamabad (Anantnag) from February 7, demanding return of mortal remains of Shaheed Maqbool Bhat and Afzal Guru,” a spokesman of the Front, in a statement today, said.
Paying glowing tributes Muhammad Maqbool Bhat and Muhammad Afzal Guroo on their anniversaries, the Tehreek-e-Muzahamat (TeM) chairman Bilal Ahmed Sidiqui, in a statement said, “Both of them will continue to inspire generations to come as great symbols of courage and sacrifices and will be acting as guiding lights for people throughout the world to stand firm, determined and tall against all sorts of tyranny and tyrannical tactics.”
Paying rich tributes to Muhammad Maqbool Bhat and Muhammad Afzal Guru Jammu Kashmir Salvation Movement (JKSM) chairman Zaffar Akbar Bhat, in a statement appealed to the people to observe shutdown on February 9 and 11. Muslim League (ML) Jammu Kashmir and Young Men’s League (YML) have also paid glowing tributes to Muhammad Maqbool Bhat and Muhammad Afzal Guru on their anniversaries, demanding return of their mortal remains.
Muhammad Hassan, spokesperson of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) militant outfit in a statement to local news agency GNS said, ” Afzal Guru infused with his blood a new spirit into the dying movement”.
He pledged to take the “movement to its logical conclusion.”
The spokesperson urged Kashmiri youth to “read and understand Guru’s message in his book Aaina and follow his path.”