More Than Terrorism What Hurt Kashmiris The Most
On August 5, 2019, the entire World had a glimpse of a new determined India. ready to defend its National Interests at all cost. The Government of India led by Shri Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister gave out a loud and clear message to the World in general and Pakistan in particular —that mindless conspiracies, hate propaganda or any type of interference will have no place in Kashmir or in our Indian nation.
The constitutional changes in Jammu & Kashmir were further fortified with an onslaught on terror financing. Earlier only the Military and the Security Forces were fighting the terrorism and hunting them down. Now even the Underground and Overground supporters came under assault by the unrelenting efforts of the national investigation agencies. With the crackdown on illegal money transfer and laundering, the incidents of massed paid protests, stone pelting, forced bandhs and all such activities that depended on hawala money started vanishing.
The previous central and state governments in J&K had knowingly or unknowingly had unconstitutionally funded a handful of Separatists leaders like Geelani under the cover of relief and facilities coupled with security and other perks.
Over the last 40 years, the National Conference and the Peoples Democratic Party, which enjoyed power in Jammu Kashmir for a long time, directly or indirectly supported Geelani’s Tehreek-e-Hurriyat and did not leave any stone unturned to ensure that Geelani enjoyed government perks including medical expenses, accommodation and travel. When Geelani was suffering from kidney cancer in Ranchi jail where he was under detention in 2004, even the Government of India ensured he was operated upon in AIIMS at public expense.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani Geelani was total separatist who had no love lost for even the Kashmir people. Hurriyat not only welcomed foreign terrorists on the soil of Kashmir but also provided them with full support. Any one who spoke truth and opposed Pakistan was never tolerated but just eliminated. This is what happened to the JKLF leadership. Even Professor Abdul Gani Lone was one of the many victims of such insidious acts. Prof. Abdul Gani Lone always pushed for the ouster of foreign terrorists from Kashmir and this led to the killing of Abdul Gani Lone on May 21, 2002.
“We are Pakistanis and Pakistan is us”, “Go India, Go Back” and “Yahaan Kya Chalega, Nizam-e-Mustafa”. These are some of the hyperbolic anti-India slogans that Syed Ali Shah Geelani—a pro-Pakistani separatist used to promote his brainwashed agenda of separatism and radicalization through the years.
Golan has now died at the age of 92 in Srinagar on September 1, 2021. Since then the entire Kashmir Valley has remained peaceful. This implies that there is increasing disassociation of the people of Kashmir from separatist and violent activities. Such positive indicators are coming up because of all the development act being done in the Valley since last several years.
Among the millions of unsung victims of selfish agenda of the Separatists have been the Kashmiri youth, who were radicalized, led astray and turned into mere cannon fodder. Due to the Separatists concept of so-called “merger with Pakistan ”, the common Kashmiris were robbed of a normal life and Kashmir was marred by years of death and destruction.
According to an estimate, Hurriyat kept Kashmir on hartals (strikes) for more than 2,928 days, which is more than eight years. The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries estimated a business loss of Rs 130 crore during each day of the strike called by Geelani himself. In June 2010, Hurriyat had launched a protest calendar asking ordinary Kashmiris to stock essentials in order to prepare for a long drawn anti-India protest programme. People were asked to draw anti-India graffiti on the streets of Kashmir and post provocative slogans on social media networking websites.
In 2016, following Burhan Wani’s elimination, around 31 school buildings were gutted at the behest of Hurriyat. In fact December 2010, Jammu and Kashmir Police had claimed that SAS Geelani had himself had paid Rs 40 lakhs to Masarat Alam—another anti-India separatist—to fuel strong protests and stone pelting across the Kashmir Valley.
Hurriyat also encouraged young boys to attack the camps of Indian security forces during protests and strikes. The workers of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat collected money, which came through multiple channels including drug smuggling, hawala and illegal transfers from Pakistan, and also receiving funds via internet banking for spearheading violence on the streets of Kashmir. The NIA is now pulling its net tighter against this Terror Funding.
