By: Shafqat Shafi
If someone says, I want to live in peace, how would you react? Adore and appreciate him/her? Snub and criticize him/her?
The answer is obvious. Anyone, in his right state of mind, would just adore and appreciate and even look for opportunities where he/she too could contribute a bit for restoration of peace.
RIGHT STATE OF MIND is the key WORD.
A few days back, interesting and positive news made headlines in the media. India and Pakistan militaries agreed to respect earlier ceasefire agreements along Line of Control (LoC) and International Border (IB).
As, given the hostilities, Pakistani and Indian militaries continue to shoot at each other, the LoC dewellers can’t dare to move out of their homes.
Their children can’t go to schools and their live stock can’t go out for grazing as shells and bullets can rain anytime, anywhere. They had to celebrate it. This is what they all along had wanted. BUT!
Suddenly comes a statement from someone, who has been in hibernation since August 05, 2019, opposing the agreement.
The so called hardliner separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani’s group objected to ceasefire along LoC saying “Pakistan has repeatedly said that without a roll back of 5th August 2019 decision, relations with India cannot improve”.
Mr. Geelani in a letter, which undoubtedly was not written by him as per his reported health conditions, has called the ceasefire as “disturbing and surprising”.
Nobody except his nearest family knows about his health status. Wishing him well, no one, in his right state of mind can ever oppose an initiative that has a potential to save human life and limb. So how could Mr. Geelani oppose the ceasefire unless there is something wrong in the head or heart?
On February 24, India and Pakistan announced that they have agreed to strictly observe all agreements on ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir and other sectors. A joint statement issued in Islamabad and New Delhi said the Director Generals of Military Operations of the two countries held discussions over the established mechanism of hotline contact and reviewed the situation along the LoC and all other sectors in a “free, frank and cordial” atmosphere.
A statement, attributed to Mr. Geelani, cast aspersions over the ‘surprising move.’ He, sort of, rejected the initiative saying the development in itself is disturbing as it is surprising.
Interestingly, Mr. Geelani’s representative, who dished out the letter to Pakistan, has, sort of mellowed down on Accession to Pakistan and Azadi. He mostly talks about the August 05, 2019 developments.
“Ever since India’s brazen aggression on August 5 2019, we have been hearing assurance after assurance that there would be no engagement with India until it rolls back everything it did on August 5. Now we know the back channel talks between the two sides have been going on for several months culminating in the latest DGMO’s pact. May one ask why this contradiction between the stated policy and action? Or may one, for that matter, ask why this secrecy on a matter of such national and international importance,” reads the letter thus bringing Mr. Geelani down from his Accession to Pakistan plank pre-August 05, 2019 position of Jammu and Kashmir.
He (Geelani) is a politician and politics is a religion beyond traditional religions which commoners like us follow. But here is a question. If India and Pakistan militaries decide not to fire and shell each other’s areas and not to kill civilians, would you oppose it? I believe no one will.
How can a man of Mr. Geelani’s age be so sadistic to see people suffering during ceasefire confrontations in Uri, Poonch, Rajouri, Karnah, Tangdhar, Muzaffarabad, Neelam Valley etc.?
Fact of the matter is that Mr. Geelani’s politics has turned Kashmir into a massive graveyard where parent’s are busy burying their young children who have been brainwashed to follow an unachievable and false dream. A dream sold by politicians who oppose any move aimed at restoring peace here.
The politics that survives on human blood can never be comfortable with any initiative that has potential to stop the blood-shed. Kashmir and Kashmiris have been victim of this politics right from 1990.
By opposing the ceasefire agreement, Mr. Geelani and his group has brazenly admitted that they stand for anything but the safety and security of Kashmiri populace. Violence is what this type of politics thrives on. And it is time that Kashmiris understand the game plan of those who hide their politics of death behind the slogans like ‘permanent resolution of Kashmir issue.’
Let people say no to the politics that leads to death and destruction. Time has come to call a spade a spade. Blinded by self-righteousness, the politician who oppose each and every step that has some promise of peace should be named, shamed and isolated. Let Kashmiri youth not die for any false dreams but live with the dreams of a better, peaceful and promising future.
