Stone pelting creating rift within already divided Kashmiri separatists

Syed Ali Safvi

JAMMU, Mar 26: The apparent divide within the separatist camp seems to be widening by the day. The latest reason for the growing divide is recent controversy over stone pelting that has exposed the underbelly of separatists' claims of 'unity' and 'coordination'.
Jamiat-e-Ahli-Hadees (JAH) president, Maulana Showkat Ahmed Shah said on Sunday that stone pelting is forbidden in Islam.

"Stone pelting cannot be justified. Islam is about discipline and if the leaders are asking people to refrain from stone pelting then they should adhere to the directions. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) too has asked us to refrain from it," he said while addressing Majlis Shoora of JAH.

Chairman of Tehreek-e Hurriyat, Syed Ali Shah Geelani says that stone pelting is done in reaction against the tyranny of gun wielding troops.

"If troops allow us to hold innocuous and peaceful protest why would we take to stone pelting," he says.

Referring to the first protest carried out on June 23, 2008 during the infamous Amarnath land row, Geelani says: "It was a peaceful protest, but they (troops) fired dozens of tear gas shells to disperse the protestors."

"How could an unarmed youth hold his nerve when he is provoked by the occupational forces?" Geelani asks.

Quoting a verse from Quran, the septuagenarian leader maintains that Allah permits resistance to oppression.

Senior separatist leader and president of Islamic Students League (ISL), Shakeel Ahmad Bakshi says that be it religion or the international forum oppressed lot has been given all the right to show resistance.

"Religion does not bar the oppressed and subjugated people from showing resistance," he says. "Stone pelting has remained part of the movement and the fatwas issued against it have no basis."

Obliquely referring to president Moulana Showkat's statement, Shakeel says the same people are issuing statements against stone-pelting in Kashmir who have been all along organising seminars in support of the Palestine cause and the stone throwing youth and children.

JKLF (Rajbagh) also today came out in support of stone pelting as a form of agitation.
However, senior Hurriyat Conference (M) leader and president Anjuman-e-Sharie Shian, Agha Syed Hassan Al-Mosavi believes that stone pelting "defiles the spirit of Islam".
"There are ways to show anger through sloganeering, peaceful protests. People must abstain from stone pelting," Agha says.

'Kani jung', in vernacular stone pelting, has been the Kashmiris' distinctive way of venting pent up anger on issues ranging from religious, social, political and administrative matters to power shutdowns.

Kashmir's history is silent about this trait, however, it is said that while fighting Dogra rule in the 1930s, disenchanted Kashmiris had no other way of expressing their fury except by hurling stones and kangris at the oppressors.

Stone pelting gained popularity from 1960 onwards when supporters of two rival political groups - of the National Conference called 'sher' (lions) and of the Awami Action Committee called 'bakra' (goats) - would indulge in clashes called 'sher-bakra' battles.