Kashmiri separatist leader Geelani not to attend Pak High Commission’s Eid Milan
Srinagar: Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani has decided not to attend the Eid Milan party being hosted by Pakistan high commissioner Abdul Basit on July 21 to lodge his protest over the absence of any mention of Kashmir in the joint statement issued after Prime Minister, Narendra and his Pakistani counterpart Mian Nawaz Sharief met in the Russian city of Ufa on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) programme recently.
“We are not attending Eid Milan being organized by Pakistan High Commissioner at New Delhi. This is in protest against not mentioning Kashmir in Ufa meeting the Prime Minister of Pakistan had had with his Indian counterpart,” a statement issued by the Hurriyat Conference faction headed by the octogenarian separatist leader here on Tuesday said. It added “The people of Jammu and Kashmir can’t be taken for granted.”
The conglomerate faction spokesperson Ayaz Akbar said that omission of Kashmir from the joint statement was “unfortunate” and as symbolic protest against it “neither Geelani Sahib nor any one on behalf of (his faction of) Hurriyat Conference will attend the Eid Milan party. He asserted that Kashmir issue involved the future of 13 million people and was the issue of life and death for them; hence it can’t be taken for granted in any circumstances and at any stage nor can it be ignored.
He alleged that the BJP government in India is trying to push its ‘minus Kashmir’ agenda and by agreeing not to include Kashmir in the Ufa joint statement Pakistan “seems to have only accepted New Delhi’s dictation” He added, “It appears Mian Nawaz Sharif has sought to please Narendra Modi and while doing so ignored the wishes and aspirations of the people of Kashmir and the huge sacrifices they have rendered in the way of their genuine freedom struggle which has only hurt them.” .
The Pakistan high commission in India has invited Hurriyat Conference leaders and other prominent separatists from Jammu and Kashmir to its Eid Milan party to be held within its premises at Chanakyapuri on July 21. Reiterating his country’s ‘moral, political and diplomatic support in their legitimate struggle for self-determination as provided for in the United Nations Charter and universal declaration of human rights’ to the people of the State, Mr. Basit had said earlier this week that there was nothing unusual about his invite to the Kashmiri leaders.
Others who figure in the list of invitees from Kashmir include its chief Muslim cleric and chairman of his faction of Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Muhammad Yasin Malik, Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party supremo Shabir Ahmed Shah and Kashmir Front chief Nayeem Ahmed Khan. Mr. Geelani had earlier said that the decision whether to attend the Eid Milan party or not would be taken by him after consulting other members of the advisory council of his Hurriyat Conference faction.
These leaders were earlier invited also for the Iftar party that had been planned at the Pakistan high commission but was cancelled later because of the deaths of hundreds of people in the heat wave that swept Karachi recently.
