A delegation of Muslim clerics of the Barelvi school today met Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to discuss the Kashmir issue and said that the Parliamentarians who went to the Valley as part of the all-party delegation should not have tried to meet Hurriyat leaders and those who raise slogans like 'Pakistan Zindabad’.
The delegation also urged the Home minister to lead a delegation of Sufi scholars to the Valley while offering to take out a peace march there themselves. "We met Home Minister Rajnath Singh and proposed that he should lead a delegation of Sufi scholars and clerics to Kashmir. We would try to instil some sense in the minds of stone pelting youths," Maulana Ansar Raza of Garib Nawaz Foundation, who led the delegation, told IANS.
“Some people who went with Home Minister to Kashmir went to meet separatist leaders, they should not have done that. Why talk to people from Hurriyat people and those who raise slogans of Pakistan Zindabad?” a member of the delegation said after the meeting with Rajnath.
Raza said the 60-odd Sufis from various khanqahs across India plan to take out a peace march in Kashmir with the Quran in one hand and the 'Tiranga' (national tricolour) in the other, stressing that Sufism is the way forward in Kashmir.
He, however, dismissed the prospect of any talks with separatists. "How can we talk to people who are raising 'Pakistan zindabad' slogans? We are very clear that we would not go at their doorstep only to be turned away by them, like they did to a handful of people recently," he said.
On Sunday, Kashmiri separatists leaders refused to meet the members of the all-party delegation which went to Jammu and Kashmir as part of government’s efforts to end the two-month-long unrest in the Valley following Hizbul Mujahideen terrorist Burhan Wani's killing in July.
The all-party delegation seeking to end the turbulence in Kashmir concluded its visit yesterday with no breakthrough.
Calling the members of all-party delegation who went to meet Hurriyat leaders on Monday as "chai khor", Raza said that they should not have broken away from the delegation and gone to meet the separatists.
"Why should we go to them? Kashmiri kahwa tou Dilli me bhi milta hai (Kashmiri kahwa is available in Delhi too)," he said.
Supporting the government's stance on Kashmir, including to review the facilities given to separatist leaders, Raza said that a solution would certainly come out.
"The government of India's policy and response towards the Kashmir situation is fine, and a solution would definitely come out. Kashmir hamara hai, hamara rahega (Kashmir is ours, and would remain ours)," he said.
Unhappy at the stubborn refusal of Hurriyat leaders to meet some MPs who had literally knocked at their doors in Srinagar, the Home Minister had said that their conduct was against "democracy, humanity or even 'Kashmiriyat' (Kashmiri ethos)".
Rajnath today briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the situation in Kashmir after returning from his two-day visit to the state.
The Home Minister, in an hour long meeting, apprised Modi about the ground situation of the state assessed by the all-party delegation which visited Srinagar and Jammu on September 4 and 5.
"Briefed the Prime Minister on all-party delegation's visit to J&K and also apprised him of the situation in the state," Singh said in a tweet after the meeting at the Prime Minster's residence.
Meanwhile, curfew-like restrictions continued in some parts of the Kashmir Valley on Tuesday as the toll in ongoing unrest rose to 75.
(With IANS)
