Distinguish between killers and Mujahideen: slain cleric’s mother

In a significant development within the separatist fold in Kashmir valley, the mother of Maulana Showkat Shah, the Jamiat-e-Ahl-e-Hadith [JAH] chief who was assassinated in a bomb blast here on April 8, 2011, has publicly assailed the secessionist ideologue Syed Ali Shah Geelani over glorifying her son’s alleged killers as ‘Mujahideen.’

Mr. Shah’s mother Aamina has not spared the JAH leadership or the Omar Abdullah government for their “lackadaisical attitude” in bringing her son’s assassins to justice.

“When Showkat

sahib was martyred, all the resistance parties, including that of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, [had] jointly investigated the matter and, with the help of the Mujahideen, come out with the names of those who conspired against and killed him,” Ms. Aamina said in a statement on Sunday and reminded Mr. Geelani that the two militants — Javed Munshi Billa Papa and Nisar Khan — had been identified as the cleric’s assassins.

Ms. Aamina has bitterly reacted to Mr. Geelani’s statement in the local newspapers and asked him how he could describe the same persons as Mujahideen and demand their release from jail before Eid-ul-Azha.

Ms. Aamina called it a historic development that the “unknown killers” had for the first time been identified and named by a committee, whose constituents included Mr. Geelani’s organisation, other separatist groups as well as the militant outfits.

“After this, these leaders including Geelani

sahib came to console me and I still remember the words of Geelani

sahib, who, drawing similarities between the killings of our great Khulafai Rashideen, said that Showkat

sahib was killed like those

Khulafa [caliphs] were. Today after reading his statement I want to ask him: why this double speak now?” Ms. Aamina said.

She pointed out that Mr. Geelani had also glorified eminent cleric-politician Mirwaiz Maulvi Mohammad Farooq’s assassin as a ‘Mujahid’ in the same statement. “If this is what they believe in, may I ask these leaders why they visit the families of those killed and shed tears?”

She said that “no leader or commoner” would remain safe in Kashmir if separatist leaders like Mr. Geelani failed to distinguish “between a killer and a Mujahid.”