Separatist held after Pak flags come up in Anantnag rally

Suhail A Shah

Anantnag, May 29

Separatist leader and Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chairman Shabir Ahmad Shah was arrested after Pakistani flags were waved at his rally today in south Kashmir’s Anantnag district. 

Shah, who defended the waving of Pakistani flags by saying that “it’s a matter of sentiments”, was arrested soon after the rally when he was on his way back to Srinagar.

J&K’s Director General of Police K Rajendra said a case had been registered and the police were trying to identify the culprits guilty of waving the flags.

The waving of Pakistani flags by Shah’s supporters in the Lal Chowk area of Anantnag town comes only two days after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh warned separatists of stern action for raising Pakistani flags in Kashmir.

Singh, on May 27 in Jammu, had termed the raising of Pakistani flags in Kashmir as un-Islamic. The Government of India will not tolerate pro-Pakistan sloganeering and raising of Pakistani flags on Indian soil, the Home Minister had said.

Over the past month and a half, Pakistani flags were raised at hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Geelani’s rallies near Srinagar and in Tral and at moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s Srinagar rally on the eve of his father’s death anniversary.

Senior separatist leader Masarat Alam is behind bars since April 17 for waving Pakistani flag at Geelani’s rally in Srinagar.

Shabir Shah while addressing the gathering said the Centre should not be irked by the waving of Pakistani flags in Kashmir for the people of Kashmir have been doing so since 1947.

“Besides, Pakistan has been a constant companion of the Kashmiri people. Pakistan has been lending us moral, diplomatic and political support despite battling terrorism in its own backyard,” Shah said, adding that Kashmiris shared a special bond with Pakistan.

He praised Pakistan for the positive role it had been playing throughout the Kashmir turmoil.

The separatist leader said Pakistan and China should have a role to play in the resolution of the Kashmir issue. “Pakistan has been playing its part and we expect China to intervene as well,” he said.

Shah said waving of Pakistani flags might be a crime if done in New Delhi or any other Indian city but “it’s not a crime in Kashmir given the disputed nature of the place”.

He urged India to work for the resolution of the Kashmir issue “for its own good.”

Shah said 20 crore people in India were living in abject poverty and if India resolved the Kashmir issue, the money spent on military here could be used for the good of its own people.