Srinagar, Apr 22: The separatist leaders in Kashmir Friday vowed to expose the killers of prominent religious scholar, Maulana Showkat Ahmad Shah during a sit-in rally to protest the killing of the religious leader, who died in an IED blast on the 8th of April.
“People in Kashmir have been anguished by the murder of Maulana Showkat. People and parties are depressed in the wake of his murder. It is a travesty of justice that those who kill leaders and then the next day issue statements mourning their death,” said Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, cleric and chairman of moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference (alliance of separatist groups) while addressing a sit-in protest rally in Srinagar. Hundreds of people attended the sit-in protest to protest the killing of prominent religious scholar.
He said the separatist leadership was being targeted in a well planned conspiracy to defeat the “genuine and justified freedom struggle of the Kashmiri people.” “India could not suppress the voice of the Kashmiris during past 22 years of struggle and today this voice is being heard throughout the world. No power can defeat the genuine freedom struggle of the people in Kashmir who have given tremendous sacrifices for this cause,” he said.
Amid slogans unveil and punish the murderers, Mirwaiz said, “Conspiracies are being hatched to disgruntle Kashmiris from the movement. There are some elements, who have infiltrated the ranks of freedom movement and are trying to defame it by their actions. Time has come to throw such elements out,” he vowed.
Commenting on the police claims that the assassins of Maulana Showkat had been arrested and the murder plot unearthed, he said, “We neither accept nor reject the police report. We will wait for the final report from the government and then analyze it. At our level, we are also trying to probe the murder.”
Another separatist leader and chairman of the pro-independence JKLF, Mohammad Yasin Malik said time has come when the nation should know the truth about the killings of Mirwaiz Molvi Farooq to Abdul Gani Lone and Dr Abdul Ahad Guroo, Qazi Nisar, Prof Abdul Ahad Wani, Advocate Hussam-ud-Din, Mufti Jamal-ud-Din, Molvi Mushtaq Ahmad, Prof Ramzan and now Moulana Showkat.
“In a pre-planned conspiracy, efforts are being made by anti-movement elements to ‘convert our freedom-movement into a civil war. We have to jointly defeat the nefarious designs of such elements,” he said.
He said the separatist leadership will not lie to people over the killing of Moulana Showkat. “Lies have cost us much in the past but this time we will not lie to the nation. Our efforts will not bring back Shah Sahib but these efforts will surely safeguard the rest of our religious as well as political leaders,” added Malik.
