From his dimly lit office chamber Dr Sheikh Javid has successfully explored the unexplored part of the universe. Saima Bhat talks to the genius physicist whose find earned him a berth at prestigious American Physical Society

Dr Sheikh Javid

There is something curiously strange about Dr Sheikh Javid Ahmad – a professor in physics department and dean research at the University of Kashmir – who loves to bury himself inside his small office cabin, and think of universe beyond an ordinary man’s comprehension. This calm, cold and dimly lit cabin is like an alternative world for Dr Javid, from where he tries to peep beyond the already explored four percent of the universe. “About 96 percent of our universe, which is made up of dark matter/energy, is yet to be explored. Rest four percent is what we know as of now. And it is this four percent that is visible to us,” says Dr Javid, who has published more than 126 research articles in international journals.

But it is Dr Javid’s valuable contribution to the ‘study of nuclei beyond the valley of stability’ that earned him a coveted place in American Physical Society (APS) in 2015. He is the first Kashmiri to make it to the world’s prestigious list of scientists which has over 60 thousand members, mostly Americans. “It is a great honour for a Kashmiri,” feels Dr Javid, whose stint as scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) and Technical University Munich (Germany), was reason for his entry into the prestigious list.

Dr Javid is the part of global scientists’ team who are trying to construct the universe starting with the nucleus itself. Dr Javid’s work has given a new direction to nuclear physics research, as several hundred papers have been written based on his original work.

Interested in studying the basic constituents of a nucleus, Dr Javid says the researchers don’t have a complete understanding of what happens inside a nucleus. “But they probe to study it under different conditions of temperatures and energies and then use a theoretical model and predict the properties of a nucleus,” says Dr Javid.

Theoretical work is also done using models and interactions which are then correlated as the interactions of these elements are not known. For this, models are constructed and then properties are calculated. Properties are also measured by experimental measurements, compared to study if the interactions agree with the experimental findings.

So far only 250 stable nuclei are well researched. “We don’t have any idea of the properties for the rest of around 3000 unstable nuclei,” claims Dr Javid.  “So far we have been able to study them using the available conventional facilities.”

Dr Javid is hopeful that in next five years they will be able to study remaining stable nuclei as Michigan State University is coming up with new facilities. “With the help of fusion kind of reaction we can construct nuclei only up to Iron (56). Beyond that we don’t know how elements have been created.  We have been using Rapid Proton Capture (RPC) process to study unstable nuclei/isotopes in nuclear physics,” says Dr Javid.

But as they move forward for heavier elements like Lead and Uranium, it changes.

Dr Javid loves to talk about his work on nuclei of an atom. While studying the properties of gaseous state elements on magical numbers, which are supposed to be somewhat stable and don’t change, Dr Javid proved that they too change. It was a big find that made APS chose Dr Javid, a resident of south Kashmir’s Islamabad district, as a fellow.

Among a list of awards and accolades Dr Javid was offered a fellowship by the New York Academy of Sciences.

Dr Javid’s journey into the world of physics began after he completed his masters (1982), and went on to do his PhD from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay (1987). “The next stop was Daresbury Laboratory in England. I did my post doctoral studies from there.”

After coming back, he started working in IIT Bombay. Then in 1996 he left Bombay and taught in universities in countries like Sweden, Germany, USA and England. “But I always dreamt of coming back to Kashmir,” says Dr Javid. Finally in 2003 he joined Kashmir University as professor in physics.

However, his knowledge has made him a sought after name in physics, as he is a visiting faculty for 14 universities across the world. “We live in a globalised world. I just need a laptop to do my work,” says Dr Javid with a smile.

Even after pricked and provoked by fringe elements time and again, Kashmir has upheld its tradition of communal harmony to the wonder of many, reports Mohammad Raafi

Muslims cremating a deceased pandit in this picture.

WAHIBUGH, Pulwama – This hamlet had no usual Eid celebrations this past fall. All celebrations ceased when the news of a pandit demise spread. Almost the entire hamlet shortly reached the house of Ramchand Koul—the pandit who never left his home, hearth, hamlet when majority in his tribe fled Kashmir.

Koul departed on the day of Eid-ul-Azha. From the daybreak itself before the celebrations would pick up in Wahibugh, the news spread and changed the mood. With his kith and kin away, the villagers volunteered for his last rites.

Some four hundred of them turned up for Koul’s cremation—performed strictly as per Hindu rituals. Later Koul’s son, Vinod was filled with the gratitude. “I mean it was Eid and everyone in the hamlet had a busy day out,” he says.“But even then, people of my hamlet left everything else behind to ensure proper cremation to my father. I am simply overwhelmed.”

The treatment didn’t last till cremation ground itself. Then, for days to come, Muslims of Wahibugh arranged tea, food and other things for the bereaved family.

But what was lately demonstrated at Wahiubugh was perceived as “a ray of hope” by MK Gandhi long back when the great partition was bleeding sub-continent quite bad. This sense of harmony remained unbroken—even when, Jammu enforced economic blockade on Kashmir during 2008 Amarnath land row besides blinding some Kashmiri truckers. Kashmiri Muslims only responded by feeding the Amarnath pilgrims.

Last 25 years threw a major challenge for Kashmiri Muslims often accused for Pandit migration in Delhi media. The response that came from Kashmir busted these media myths.

With Pandits away, their crematories across Kashmir were left without morticians, locally called Kawij. This left around 2000 odd Pandit families distressed. One such distressing moment gripped an elderly woman from Habba Kadal during 2010 street protests.

With Kashmir reeling under continuous curfews and curbs, not many knew that a pandit living in Habba Kadal’s Chinkral Mohalla had expired. The city was tense, so was the life itself. With media gagged, internet blocked and newspapers ceased, the communication crisis hit the city badly. Amid the crisis, the demise of Kishan Lal Puri who never migrated from Kashmir remained unheard.

But once a relaxation was given in curfew, almost the entire Chinkral Mohalla participated in Lal’s final journey. “What we did then was the sheer display of our tradition, humanity,” says Mushtaq, a local. “Muslims and Pandits have lived, grown up together here—even our religion teaches us to guard minorities. I don’t think we did anything extraordinary.”

It’s not just symbolic—as is being touted by certain quarters—but an immediate, spontaneous societal response. From arranging firewood to organising transport, local Muslims always threw their weight behind their Pandit brethren.

In the erstwhile hub of KPs, Habba Kadal, the remaining 5 to 6 Pandit households recall how Muslims were there for them when they “needed them the most”.

All these years, says Cham Lal, a Pandit putting up in Habba Kadal, “Muslims did everything for us. From performing religious rites to organising vehicles, and from informing police to carrying the body, they did it all by severing their own engagements.”

Last year when Bhola Nath Kachroo living in the area with his wife and a daughter died after an illness, none from his community was there to perform his last rites.

Muslims made all the arrangements for his last rites besides providing succour to the bereaved family for days to come.

“There was nobody to perform the burial,” says Lal, “before Muslim neighbours came forward voluntarily to cremate Kachroo.”

Lal’s immediate neighbour, Ghulam Mohammad Bhat, recalls many Pandit deaths in the area in recent times. “With Habba Kadal almost turning into ghost lanes,” he says, “only Muslims neighbours were there for the non-migrant Pandits.”

Bhat says the Muslims would gather and perform the last rites for Pandits without making it a faith issue. “We did turn as humans to help our mourning neighbours,” he says. “They didn’t leave when other Pandits fled and we owe responsibilities to take care of them.”

Back to Wahibugh. The locals assert the bond between Muslims and Pandits are unbreakable. “We stood by our Pandit brothers during militancy,” says Ghulam Rasool, Koul’s neighbour. “We have protected them like our brothers. There is no question of turning our backs ever to them.”

The journey of an old city boy from his father’s mechanic workshop to Kashmir University’s Arabic department is pregnant with pain, passion and perseverance, reports Shakir Mir

Tariq Ahangar

His youthful years were spent trying to mend the damaged cars at his father’s workshop. With no clear foresight how to make ends meet, Tariq Ahangar worked as a turner for a substantial part of his life. Hailing from a humble background, Tariq grew up as an ardent student of mathematics but later opted for Arabic.

Today he is an influential board member in Kashmir University’s Arabic Department. As a fulltime Assistant Professor, Tariq writes and translates poems and short stories in Arabic language.

But his successful career has not come without enduring his own share of hardship and straitened time. Born in 1972 in old city, Tariq grew up in a poor milieu. He studied in a local school before migrating to Chanapora locality. He joined government higher secondary school Jawahar Nagar as non-medical student.

Across Kashmir, back then, the socio-political order was seething with unrest. “Due to turmoil, I couldn’t concentrate on my studies,” Tariq says. “I would go to college twice a week because things were not conducive.”

His three sisters studied while father toiled hard at a motor workshop in Batamaloo. His homemaker mother would manage the household chores. It was therefore difficult to eke out a living. “Even genealogically we are very hard-working people,” he chuckles. It was thus he left the need to earn money.

Tariq finally decided to get apprenticed to his father at the workshop—welding snapped metal, and fixing spear parts. The daylong slog fetched him a frugal 400 rupees. All his income would empty out for domestic expenditure.

Today, sitting across the table at the departmental library in Kashmir University, Tariq speaks at length about his remarkable journey. He is dressed immaculately; brown leather tuxedo and black pants. He jabs away at the air, trying to explain things while occasionally caressing his thick beard with hand.

“Later I developed interest in Arabic language,” he recalls in retrospect. “But I couldn’t get direct admission in MA Arabic because it wasn’t my subject during graduation.”

Tariq enrolled himself in a diploma course in Arabic, necessary to gain admission in post-graduate studies. “Diploma was sort of a bridge course,” he says. “Back then at KU, there was a depleted staff. But under the stewardship of Prof Peerzada Bashir I grew up as a consummate student of Arabic.”

Tariq secured 80% marks in his exams. He was later rewarded with a gold medal. “All these achievements boosted my confidence,” he says.

Years later, in 2000, Tariq got a whiff about the National Educational Test (NET) that would have made him eligible for lectureship. In cold December morning, he appeared in the exams. “Only two persons from university passed the test,” he says. “…me and another student from the English department.”

His serendipitous moment came a year later when Kashmir University’s Arabic Department advertised a post for a teaching assistant. As many as 10 candidates appeared for the interview. “Some of them were PhDs while many MPhils,” he says.

In a sheer luck, Tariq got selected for the only one vacancy that University had advertised. For the next two years, he faced two more interviews – and then even passed them – in order to retain his job as a teaching assistant.

Later, he applied for the permanent post. Out of 17 candidates vying for the single post, he was selected. “I could not rein my happiness,” Tariq says.

Since then he has been since serving as assistant professor in the department. Tariq has translated many poems and short stories from Arabic language. He wrote many short stories of his own. His first short story was published in 2001 entitled Da-ul-Kalb (Heartache).

He has also written a litany of research papers published in many reputed journals. Currently he is a member of Board of PG studies, Board of UG studies and Incharge Students activities. “I am thankful to my mother for all the achievement I have had,” Tariq concedes.

His aging father has now relinquished his mechanical job. Evers since he secured a job at KU, all the responsibility has been rested on his shoulders while father rests at home. And workshop? “It was sold out long ago,” he gleams.

Once the Delhi-Srinagar rapprochement sent J&K Congress to the backseat in 1975, Mufti Sayeed started experimenting with alternative ways of staying powerful. His chain of experiments continued till he ceased to be India’s Home Minster in November 1990. Bilal Handoo reviews 15 years of Mufti’s status as being Delhi’s powerful Kashmiri man

Indira Gandhi

Much before her guards-turned-guerrillas gunned her down, the dauntless daughter of Jawahar Lal Nehru boasted: “All my games were political games; I was, like Joan of Arc, perpetually being burned at the stake.” Joan, a French military leader, defeated British during the Hundred Years’ War.

India’s Indira was playing a different game, especially in Kashmir – a go-getting political battle. Once she played her masterstroke, Kashmir’s ‘tallest’ leader declared plebiscite movement a “political wilderness”, binning it after 22 years of battle-hardened struggle. But she needed the “wily man” from Bijbehara to keep mercurial Abdullah in check and balance.

Before becoming Indira’s eyes and ears of Kashmir, Mufti M Sayeed, Abdullah’s archrival, was a silent spectator of 1975 Indira-Abdullah accord. The Congressmen of yore reckon that the accord provided political space to Mufti and an opportunity to know how he can manage an opposition while being part of the government.

While Abdullah became chief minister, Indira elevated Mufti—Syed Mir Qasim’s junior besides his right-hand man, as her state party chief. Mufti got the prized post after Indira glimpsed ‘cunning’ leadership skills in him. He was immediately tasked to rebuild the state Congress “to cut size to Abdullah’s stature”. Fearing renewal rant of autonomy, Indira wanted Mufti to keep Abdullah in a tight spot. Her paranoia was deep rooted in the realisation how she and her late father had toyed with J&K’s autonomy issuing 28 constitutional orders and implementing 262 Union laws in state from 1954-75 — the epoch when Abdullah was behind the bars. It was then, state Congress camp started simmering.

Behind the rage were Abdullah’s vintage anti-Congress rant and his signature snub politics. The disgruntled Congress chieftain beckoned ‘powerless’ Indira at Delhi. While conveying his displeasure over the state of affairs, Mufti convinced her to withdraw support from Abdullah government. But the ruling Janata Party didn’t wish to see Congress in power in any state, particularly in Kashmir—where they feared that the ‘fly-by-night’ Abdullah might resurrect the plebiscite movement if rendered powerless, again.

But Mufti had his own plans. By spring 1977, he was face to face with the governor LK Jha along with Indira’s state force. The Congress lawmakers had walked into the Raj Bhavan to withdraw support from Abdullah’s government with immediate effect. The fresh demand was to declare a new Congress government in state led by Mufti. But Abdullah, previously ousted from power by his friend-turned-foe, Nehru, had matured enough to prevent Nehru’s daughter from repeating the history.

He shortly visited the governor, asking him to dissolve the house, and announce fresh elections in J&K. While the state slipped under governor’s rule for the first time in history, Abdullah was seen in a vengeful mood to resurrect his lost aura.

By the time the last ballot of 1977 ‘fair’ elections was put to count, Abdullah’s NC emerged victorious, eradicating Congress in valley, winning 47 seats of 75 Assembly seats. Among the losers was Mufti, defeated from his hometown Bijbehara. The poll crush was an ego-hurt moment for both Mufti as well as his madam. But there was no staying back for the former advocate, who buckled up to infuse a new spirit in his party.

Mufti straight away stepped into shoes of a Congress foot soldier, visiting places to build the base of his party. He would literally knock at doors, going village to village, asking people to join his party. Much of this campaigning was confined in South Kashmir. Mufti created pockets of staunch support for Congress through his astute politics, playing a role of a bridge between Delhi and Srinagar. It was then, Mufti became a person of hate and slogans were being shouted: Muftien Kabar, Kashier-e-Neabar.

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed taking oath as India’s only Muslim Home Minister.

At Delhi, Indira-led Congress swept back to power in January 1980. The news delighted Mufti. With PM Indira’s backing, he emerged as a rival power centre in J&K, always playing his cards close to the chest. He would issue permits, give cash assistances and register graft cases against Abdullah administration. All this was coming from the man who was perhaps the only opposition for Abdullah in J&K. By September 1982, Mufti lost his nemesis to cardiac arrest. In Farooq Abdullah, he got his new-fangled rival.

At the first go, Farooq replacing his father with Indira’s support considered Mufti a “great manipulator”. The temperamental Farooq never concealed his take on Mufti—whom he repeatedly described as Indira’s “creation” for “abusing” Sheikh Abdullah. But for Mufti’s proponents, Farooq’s remarks were always desperate to denounce Mufti’s challenge to Abdullah’s political dynasty. His opponents, however, believe that Mufti’s Delhi devotion was based on his desire to become J&K’s chief minister one day. “He had a suit tailored for his swearing in at a shop on Residency Road in Jammu,” Farooq would mock at the issue whenever raised, “and it’s been gathering dust there for decades.”

Amid this no love lost between Mufti and Farooq, Indira was hoping that Abdullah’s son would be departure from his father. But she was wrong about flamboyant Farooq known for his tongue-in-cheek comments. The second generation Abdullah badly disappointed her when he turned down her offer of alliance in 1983 elections. What Indira curtly did was based on Mufti’s direction. Even her own cousin became a villain in the coup de théâtre.

The iron-fisted ruler known for her ruthless rule, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi faced controversies for her emergency rule in India from 1975 to 1977. During that period, her cousin Braj Kumar Nehru, an Indian diplomat was her articulate defender. He was convinced that Indira had no other alternative in the face of Jayaprakash Narayan’s call to the military to revolt. But the moment Nehru became Kashmir’s Governor, Mufti redefined the old maxim: Blood is not always thicker than water. Later, the man summed up his Kashmir experience in his autobiography Nice Guys Finish Second: “In Kashmir the stakes were so high that I did try and follow what happened in the next few months.”

It didn’t surprise Nehru when Farooq government was dismissed in a coup and replaced by his brother-in-law GM Shah. As a governor of J&K, Nehru was witness to the political play enacted by Indira based on Mufti’s script.

It had all started after Farooq’s alliance refusal forced Indira to unleash her full might against him. She did a week-long extensive campaigning in Kashmir with her loyal man, Mufti, who extensively air-travelled with her. Behind Indira’s adrenaline campaigning was Mir Qasim’s old catch—“whenever New Delhi feels a leader in Kashmir is getting too big for his shoes it employs Machiavellian methods to cut him to size.” But one Srinagar experience only heightened the “Mummy’s” aversion for Abdullah’s son.

As union Home Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed sitting besides the then PM of India VP Singh.

During her public address in Srinagar’s Iqbal Park in the run-up to 1983 polls, Nehru writes, some people in the audience lifted their pherans and displayed their nakedness in an obvious affront to Indira. The act left Indira red-faced. She spoke to nobody, quite contrary to her usual behaviour, and entered her aeroplane. Behind Indira’s public shame, Farooq was an accused ‘nasty brain’.

But Farooq vehemently denied his involvement. “In the absence of any evidence to the contrary,” Nehru notes, “I fully believe simply because organising vulgarity like this would be completely contrary to his (Farooq’s) character.” The chief plotter and Indira’s principal adviser, Mufti Sayeed—the disciple of PL Handoo and the protégé shared the ideology of the conspirators (Bakshi, Sadiq and Qasim) of 1953—was fuelling this mindset, Nehru recalls.

Mufti shortly struck again with his league, accusing Farooq of being a secessionist, a JKLF member. He printed an old photograph from Farooq’s London days shaking hands with Amanullah Khan and called him a Pakistani agent and an anti-Indian. “The facts,” Nehru writes, “were that Farooq was the first honestly elected leader of the Kashmiri people who was totally Indian… unlike his father.” But the conspiracy nose-dived once the poll results were out.

Riding a sympathy wave after his father Sheikh Abdullah’s death, Farooq led NC won 46 of 76 seats in 1983 elections. It was a clear majority to him in state assembly. Mufti—then despised as being too close to Delhi, lost both seats: Bijbehara and Homshalibugh. But the defeat didn’t bog down Mufti, who staged a comeback by 1984 summer with his plan to pull down an elected government.

The plan was to bribe MLAs for defecting from NC to dismiss Farooq government. For this to happen, Mufti needed Governor Nehru’s support. But Mufti had stopped visiting him after sensing his closeness with Farooq. He used Indira to execute the plan.

One fine day, Indira complained to Nehru about Farooq’s anti-Congress and anti-peoples activities. “I said that no such reports had come to me,” Nehru writes in his autobiography. The next thing said by Indira was resounding thud to his ears—“Farooq is more dangerous than Jinnah!” Nehru heard Indira saying how Farooq had boasted that he would be responsible for the second partition of India. “The conveyor of the tales to the prime minister was obviously Mufti Sayeed—whose loyalty to India was unquestionable,” he writes.

As BK Nehru refused to be party to the scheme, Indira replaced him with Jagmohan on Mufti’s insistence. Jagmohan’s reputation based on emergency days was that he was a faithful servant of 1, Safdarjung Road. His role in butchering Muslims of Turkman Gate was well known to Kashmiris. He dutifully summoned Farooq and told him that 13 of his MLAs had defected, and that he was dismissed. GM Shah took over, not before intricate intelligence was involved and lump sum money was pumped in to buy loyalties, writes Nehru.

As union Tourism Minister, Mufti Sayeed (R) accompanying then Indian PM, Rajiv Gandhi, with Dr Farooq Abdullah.

By 1985, Mufti managed to enter the state assembly after winning a by-election in Jammu’s Ranbir Singh Pura. A year later with Babri Masjid riots creating unrest in India, Mufti shared blame for engineering communal violence in South Kashmir’s Islamabad. The motive was to topple GM Shah’s government.

By then, Indira was assassinated. Her son and Farooq’s buddy, Rajiv Gandhi, sought to marginalise Mufti. The rationale was to revive Abdullah dynasty in J&K. Mufti was deputed on ‘union posting’—awarded a Rajya Sabha seat and union tourism and civil aviations portfolios. But the apparent promotion was actually demotion for Mufti: to keep him at bay from state politics. Soon Rajiv-Farooq Accord took place. Mufti opposed it saying the decision was taken by shrugging off seniors in state Congress circle.

While cooling his heels in Delhi and puffing cigarette in a gauche style, the disgruntled Mufti was busy telling a scribe shortly after the accord: “It has not been easy to be a Congressman in Kashmir. You have to develop a thick skin for the abuse and difficulties heaped on you.” Yet, Rajiv snubbed, sidelined him from state politics—the step that badly hurt Mufti.

In Delhi’s obscure political atmosphere, Mufti was awaiting a moment to bid adieu to Congress. Then, Meerut riots broke out. He blamed Rajiv’s “insensitive” approach for fanning out the violence. He resigned, returned home.

In a little while, VP Singh was sacked as defence minister from Rajiv government for speaking out against the Bofors gun scandal. He shortly raised an anti-Rajiv band, including Mufti, to start Jan Morcha movement. By October 1988, the movement took form of political party, the Janata Dal. The party won 1989 elections with Mufti winning UP’s Muzaffarnagar seat. In December that year, the National Front led by Singh conquered Delhi.

Singh became PM and Mufti, his HM—the first Muslim to ever head the ministry. More than on his merit, Mufti’s appointment was Singh’s way of showing that his was a secular regime. But, what happened six days later, redefined Mufti forever.

On the historic day of December 8, 1989, the then J&K’s Chief Secretary, Moosa Raza was a busy man. Upon reaching North Block, Mufti called him at his 10, Akbar Road residence. He had just received news of the kidnapping of his daughter. Raza saw a calm and collected father inside the room. “For a man who had received the news of his daughter’s kidnapping minutes before, he showed no sign of excitement or agitation,” Raza recalls in his memoir. “The only remark he made to me was, ‘I would not have been so anxious had they kidnapped my son.’ ”

Mufti’s second daughter, Rubaiya, a medical intern, was kidnapped in Srinagar by JKLF militant outfit, demanding the release of five militants—Abdul Hamid Shaikh, Gulam Nabi Bhat, Mohammad Altaf, Noor Mohammad Kalwal, Javed Zarger (later replaced by Abdul Ahad Waza)—incarcerated in the city, in exchange for her safe return. After twists and turns, the daughter finally returned home. Mufti maintained that releasing the militants was the state government’s decision. But the union ministers Arif Mohammad Khan and IK Gujral arriving in Srinagar with Farooq’s dismissal order in case he resisted the release contested his claims.

Mufti Sayeed with Rubaiya after her release.

Soon after the hostage crisis, PM VP Singh appointed his railway minister, George Fernandes, as head of Kashmir Affairs Committee. But the move didn’t go well for Mufti, triggering rift between the two. The irate Fernandes favouring talks with militants soon made it public that Mufti was “resisting a solution” to the Kashmir problem.

But as rebellion began building up in valley, Singh considered appointing Jagmohan—the Indira’s man notorious for toppling 1984 Farooq government—as the state’s governor. While the Left opposed the move saying the “anti-Muslim” might trigger mayhem in valley, BJP and Mufti favoured the appointment. Even President of India, R Venkataraman had reportedly opposed Jagmohan’s appointment. In protest to his appointment, Farooq resigned and flew to England “to play golf”.

And soon, in his broadcast over the state-run All India Radio, Jagmohan Malhotra, who used only one name, said: “I have come here to rid you of your difficulties.” A confrontation would mean, he warned, “the card of peace could slip out of my hands.”

He did slip his “cards of peace” quite ruthlessly. His stint as J&K Governor (January 19, 1990-May 26, 1990) saw the Kashmir entering into a period of brutal repression. On January 19, 1990, he facilitated Pandit migration from valley. On January 20, 1990, CRPF opened fire on people protesting against Delhi and Governor Jagmohan at Gaw Kadal. More than 50 people were killed. On January 25, 1990, 25 civilians killed by BSF in Handwara. On March 1, 1990, 33 killed and 47 injured at Zakoora crossing and Tengpora as forces opened fire on protestors demanding the implementation of UN Security Council resolution. On May 21, 1990, at least 50 people killed as BSF fired on the funeral procession of Mirwaiz Maulvi Mohammad Farooq near Islamia College in Srinagar.

By May 26, 1990, Jagmohan was called back—not before making bloodbath as norm in valley. As home minister, Mufti defended Jagmohan’s Kashmir tactics brushing aside the killings, massacres. “By sending Jagmohan to Kashmir we made major gains,” Mufti said in an interview on June 30, 1990. “He set up this nucleus of officials to fill the administrative vacuum. And we established the authority of the state.”

Five days later that interview in which he gave himself a clean chit, saying, ‘I’m a soft target’, Mufti implemented the dreaded Armed Forces Special Powers Act in J&K. The law gave sweeping powers to forces, setting off years of widespread crackdowns, detention and torture. Mufti was “happy” with AFSPA because he consolidated his power.

Eleven months later, Mufti’s stint as Indian home minister ended after VP Singh government fell in November 10, 1990. He soon slipped into obscurity, but his home ministerial acts continued to haunt Kashmiris. Later, his political opponent, NC, termed Mufti alongwith Jagmohan as “brothers in crime”.

“Mufti Sayeed of 1990 filled graveyards after graveyards with our young men,” NC maintains. “As the Home Minister, Mufti is on record to have said that one bullet would be responded with 100 bullets. He ordered the security forces to shoot at-will and at-sight and slit the throats of hundreds of youth. These operations have been carried out under the code name of ‘Operation Tiger’, ‘Operation Eagle’, ‘Operation Shiva’ and ‘Catch and Kill’.”

During his years (1991-95) of political hush, Mufti was quietly working on his politics of accommodation, trying to bring Kashmir closer to Delhi, thus earning labels: “surrogate” of New Delhi, “collaborator” in Indian tyranny and “Indian by conviction”.

“What are your plans for Kashmir?” Mufti, saddled with the image of a soft-man-in-the-hot-seat, was asked during his June 1990 interview. Mufti replied, “Gary Saxena will deal with terrorism firmly. But it isn’t only a security problem. The civil administration also has to do its job.” That was a vintage Mufti almost sounding like playing games akin to his Madam Indira.

A decade after Guru Bazaar’s Farooq Dar aka Bita Karate walked out of his seventeen-year-long prison life, the blast from the past continues to resound his life. The man whom many Kashmiri Pandit groups hold responsible for their plight tells Bilal Handoo some best-kept secrets in a free-wheeling interview

Bita Karate hugging a Kashmiri Pandit.

Cops inside Srinagar’s Shaheed Gunj Police Station were literally off their chairs upon seeing a wounded boy approaching to lodge a formal complaint on July 19, 1989. A brief introduction revealed that the boy was Basharat A Noori – who was last seen running JKLF camps in Pakistan. Noori told the cops how on the previous day he got badly injured in a squabble with Farooq A Dar aka Bita Karate—the most wanted teenager of his times. That day, on Noori’s insistence, Karate faced the first ‘attempt to murder’ charge of his life. Some 400 days later, Karate was freaking out police rank and file, carrying 19 murder charges on his head.

Fast forward to 2005, and all these charges were dropped. By then, Karate had spent seventeen years of his life behind bars. When police presented his file in the court, the designated judge observed that police built up a weak where even the witnesses had turned hostile.

And then days before the Eid-ul-Fitr, Karate was handed over to his family on October 25, 2006. Some 200 people turned up in his hometown Guru Bazaar for giving him a rousing reception. It was a homecoming of the man whom pandits blame for their migration from valley. In Delhi, the news sounded like a literal bombshell, where one PK (Panun Kashmir) member of KP group, said: “It is a shocking reflection of the state government’s apathy towards serving the needs of justice.” It is shame, spoke another, that the authorities failed to frame charges against a person who “publicly proclaimed having lost count of the Pandits he had killed”. Cutting him short, another agitated PK member blurted out in an apparent cue to state government: “How dare you to release a man who drove around 56,148 KP families from Kashmir.”

Amid this verbal storm, the placid Karate quickly told newsmen that he was made “pawn” in the larger political game-plan.

“My Pandit brothers have misconceptions about me. I have never killed anyone…”

“Then why do they call you a ‘butcher of Pandits’?”

“Look, I don’t blame them. They have been brazenly misled by media. The fact is, I am concerned about Pandits. I have been encouraging them to return…”

“But Pandits argue that post-prison Karate can’t masquerade as peacenik to strike sympathetic vibes in a ‘battered’ community. Perhaps, that’s why, you are the most loathed person in their tribe—or, at least in that group, called Roots in Kashmir, no?”

“Don’t worry about that fringe group called RIK. Everyone knows how Indian agencies run it. They are the one to be blamed for playing a spoilsport in Pandit return. They fear, if Pandits return, their theatrics will perish. They seem to thrive on CC: central packages and conspiracies. And yes, I don’t need to masquerade as peacenik. The fact that I was acquitted by Supreme Court of India is enough to vouch for my innocence. Now, some of them keep ranting that militants had made a religious issue to kill Pandits. I swear, religion was never an issue. The only issue was shady links of certain individuals.”

“Shady links?”

“Yes, shady links — that made some of us informers. Obviously, such persons did become targets.”

“Just for curiosity’s sake—as many KPs keep raising this: Why were those ‘targeted informers’ only Pandits?”

“What a damn lie! Listen, I believe, it is high time for Pandits to know that more Muslims were killed for their shady links than Pandits. Why isn’t anybody talking about them?”

“But don’t you think that the selective targeting of informers backfired at the infancy of militancy itself?”

“Look, we were fighting for the freedom of Muslims, Pandits, Buddhists and Sikhs of Jammu and Kashmir. So, there was no point to endanger the movement at first go itself by giving leeway to informers, right? It isn’t they were killed straightaway. They were warned beforehand to shun shady ties or face the music. Some of them shrugged off the warning and ended up facing the bullet.”

“So, was it like: anybody who was somebody in Kashmir then – I mean, ‘shady’ – figured in the hit-list?”

“No. Listen. All I am saying is, the informers got killed in an overwhelming situation of valley. Besides, let’s stop blaming militants for everything. I mean it doesn’t leave much for imagination when the ex-divisional commissioner Wajahat Habibullah tells you in his book that an intellectual like Dr Guru was killed by police…”

Bita Karate during his youthful days.

Back in late eighties, the street gossip among boys in Guru Bazaar had turned highly anti-India. Behind that politically-loaded pep talk was the hanging of Maqbool Bhat and frequent curbs on Peoples League leaders. Many of them faced Public Safety Act for peaceful demonstrations. These happenings were shaping the mindset of 14-year-old, Bita Karate, who shortly had a rendezvous with his mentor – Ashfaq Majeed Wani.

Karate first met Wani during one those of secret street meetings somewhere in Srinagar’s downtown in 1987. Before becoming his launching pad, Wani simply fascinated Karate. “There was something about that person that made me his fan from our first meeting itself,” says Karate, sitting inside his Guru Bazaar home. “Those who met Wani would become his fans. His vision and charisma were infectious.” Years later, when the incarcerated Karate was being interrogated in Joint Interrogation Centre Jammu, the police officer Makhan Lal Sharma told him how once Dr Guru during his detention in JIC told Lal: “I never came across of a man of Ashfaq Wani’s calibre.”

So naturally, continues Karate, Jagmohan’s ‘triumphant’ reaction over Wani’s killing was quite understandable: “Now when Ashfaq is dead, Kashmir is safe!” In other words, Karate says, “Jagmohan knew that his forces killed the one man army.” The same Ashfaq Majeed Wani had send Karate for month-long training to Muzaffarabad in 1988.

“After your return, what was your first action?”

“It was an attack on CRPF party at Zaina Kadal.”

“And then?”

“Then, countless actions against Indian occupation followed.”

“Did that also include, what many call, a killing of a 16-year-old Muslim girl, Dolly?”

“Who Dolly? I don’t know any such girl.”

“Okay, but pandits say, you mainly targeted unarmed persons.”

“What, rubbish! I never killed any unarmed Muslim or non-Muslim. It is just plain propaganda to malign my image. As a mujahid fighting for Kashmir’s liberation, I never attacked civilians.”

“But the former DGP JN Saxena is on record to state, ‘Bita Karate wasn’t a dreaded terrorist but was a compulsive killer…’ ”

“Well, that’s a revelation to me [laughs]. But on a serious note—even, Bhagat Singh was a killer for British. And we all know how Indians perceived him. On a flip side, how shall one describe Indian forces—responsible for killing, torturing thousands in Kashmir?”

Bita Karate during his release.

After evading arrest for long, Karate was finally caught by BSF on June 22, 1990 at Chattabal while travelling in an auto with two other comrades, Idrees and Tanveer. He was taken blindfolded to Airport before shifted to torture centres, including Papa II, JIC and Gogoland. “For over a year,” he says, “my life was made hell inside torture centres. Some unspeakable brutalities were inflicted on me.” A year later, he was shifted to Jammu’s Amphalla jail before sent to Agra and Jodhpur.

In Agra jail, besides pumping up his body and reading books and journals, he would read court judgements of inmates. He noticed a pattern in those judicial verdicts. Most of those repatriation orders for Muzaffarabad-based inmates had a Jammu address. One day, one such order also came for his fellow inmate-turned-friend from Muzaffarbad, Basharat Rajpur. Once he knew that senior Supreme Court advocate Bhim Singh was pleading these cases, he wrote him a letter from his solitary cell:

“I came to know that you are handling the cases of inmates. Being from the same state, I request you to kindly look into my case, too. I was acquitted by Supreme Court—and yet, I have been kept in illegal detention under PSA, repeatedly. Please, plead my case. It seems, the door of justice has been closed on me…”

But the jailer wouldn’t let the letter to come out of the prison. Later as Karate protested, the letter reached Jammu in 1999, where Bhim Singh read it, and hurriedly filed a writ petition on it in Supreme Court. Subsequently, three release orders were issued. Two orders were brushed aside, but as Supreme Court issued a third stern order, the presiding officer of the Terrorist and Disruption Activities (Prevention act) [TADA] judge ND Wani observed while releasing Karate on bail in 2006, “The court is aware of the fact that the allegations against the accused are of serious nature and carry a punishment of death sentence or life imprisonment but the fact is that the prosecution has shown total disinterest in arguing the case.” The order apparently set the Pandit community into frenzy.

“Though you are out on indefinite bail, but many KPs refuse to give you a clean chit in pandit killings, migration?”

“I don’t understand the madness behind their method. A veteran Hindu writer, Balraj Puri in his book Kashmir Towards Insurgency clearly terms Jagmohan as the man behind the migration. Farooq Abdullah also voiced it repeatedly: ‘Jagmohan told Pandits go on tour, I have to carry an operation in valley.’ Even Karan Singh termed the Pandit migration controversial. Now, Congress leader Digvijay Singh also made the migration secret public. Actually, Delhi demonised me to portray Kashmir’s freedom struggle as communal uprising than legitimate peoples’ movement.”

“But, pandits say you killed over 20 persons in their clan, including Habba Kadal’s Satish Tickoo.”

“See, I had strict orders only to attack the occupational forces without hurting civilians…”

“So are you saying, you didn’t kill any Pandit?”

“Of course, no!”

“But in that controversial NewsTrack interview ran as your ‘confessional statement’ by the official media soon after your arrest, you accepted your role in the killings. You did confess that you used to get orders from higher-ups and that you never used to kill anybody on your own. You also said you killed around 20 KPs and that your first kill was Satish Tickoo, whom you called a probable RSS recruit.”

“Look, that controversial television interview was taken under duress. I was only 17 then and was languished inside a torture centre. I was forced to admit killings which I never did. In fact, I was forced for the interview after subjected to third degree torture.”

“But Satish Tickoo’s family still holds you responsible for their son’s killing.”

“I don’t blame the poor family. They were also swayed by media-created myth. For a second, let’s assume, I did kill their son—then, what prevented them to try me in the court of law all these years? It is just hearsay they seem to believe in.”

“Jagmohan who visited Tickoo family soon after appointed as J&K’s governor in 1990 writes in his book, ‘My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir’ that you were behind their son’s killing.”

“I don’t buy that absurd account of that atrocious governor!”

“Alright, but any idea: who killed judge Neelkanth Ganjoo, nurse Sarla Bhat and other prominent pandits?”

“I don’t know.”

“Okay. If you had nothing to do with controversial events of nineties, as you just said, then why only your name was linked with pandit killings?”

“Simple. They needed a dog for a bad name to hang him – so they had me. Bita Karate was dogged only to project how communal was our freedom struggle. I was made a scapegoat. But my fair trail and acquittal by the highest Indian court itself shamed all charges slapped on me.”

Five years after his acquittal, Karate married with a bureaucrat Assbah Khan after overcoming family obstacles. The marriage saw the participation of who’s who in pro-freedom camp. But Karate who resigned from JKLF in 1995 over some difference with Yasin Malik joined JKLF (R) faction headed by Abdul Majeed Trumboo after his release.

But amid trail and twist in his life, one question always fascinated many: How Guru Bazaar’s Farooq A Dar became Bita Karate?

“There is very interesting story behind it. When some of my friends returned from Muzaffarabad after training in 1989, they asked JKLF’s first commander-in-chief Ashfaq Majeed Wani about the course of action they were supposed to take. The commander told them, ‘Go, and contact Bita Karate.’

Nobody had heard that name before. Bewildered, my friends asked me, ‘Who is this Bita Karate?’ Later, I could only smile over the realisation as how my mentor had baptised me based on my game of interest—Karate.”

Even at the prime age of 79, late CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, worked 12 hours, met 23 delegations and toured 16 spots during his last tour of Srinagar. Saima Bhat reports

On December 22, 2015 (CM Mufti’s Last Tour), which was the second day of Chila-i-Kalan (harsh 40 days of winters) chief minister late Mufti Mohammad Sayeed started his day at 9.30 in the morning and toured 16 different spots in the Srinagar’s old city. Before calling it a day at 9.30 PM at Nehru Guest house, he had met at least 23 different delegations throughout the day.

Since March 2015, when PDP-BJP coalition formed government in the state, late Mufti most often mentioned that he wants to ‘develop Shahr e khass (old city) in Srinagar.’ It was for the same development he visited old city for 6 times in last ten months of his government. Believed to be ‘emotionally’ attached with this part of state, focus on city was his prime concern when he, in his last speech at an unscheduled public rally, said ‘Srinagar city is oldest and should be developed as a heritage city’.

“He had travelled immensely throughout the world and that is why he was aware of the tourism potential of heritage cities. Srinagar being the oldest city, he wished it to be developed as heritage city and same were his thoughts for the Jammu city as well,” shares Muneer ul Islam, who served as director information for 5 months, in Mufti’s tenure.

Islam believes late Mufti had more memories of Srinagar city than his hometown Bijbehara. He had a desire that Srinagar city should have a place in world tourism map just like old European cities are.

Walking down his memory lanes, Mufti on the last day of his extensive tour of Srinagar city, mentioned about his college days when he was living as a tenet somewhere in Aali Kadal area.

There was a time when many people in old city had big business ventures but now, same people live in abject poverty. “He used to say these people are shy and they will never ask you for any help even if they don’t have anything to eat. No doubt they are mostly educated but they don’t have jobs. So they should be provided everything they want,” remembers Altaf Bukhari, who was accompanying Mufti throughout the day.

Starting his day in an energetic way from the Hazratbal Shrine, Mufti, accompanied by a few cabinet minister and some officials from the different departments, while speaking to the caretakers of the shrine suddenly felt absence of his daughter Mehbooba, who was away from the women restricted area. He repeatedly asked his ministers ‘Mehbooba should have been here’. Everybody took it casually but it seems like he was himself aware that he had ‘less time’ and that is why he wished his daughter to be ‘witness’ of his work and promises to the people.

Through-out the day, late chief minister donning his long black coat kept on mentioning ‘urban poverty’ in city. It is believed that he wanted rehabilitation of September 2014 flood victims on fast track basis. Besides that he was of the opinion that modern skills should be introduced for all artisans. “He was aware of the mass migration that has taken place in city and he was focused on skill development as well,” says Bukhari.

“Mufti sahib was always concerned about the dying serenity of old city. That old rich culture where life was altogether different than what it is today. And how the people themselves were keeping river Jhelum clean,” recalls Mufti Mehraj ud Din, Saddar mufti J&K, from what his father late Mufti Jalaludin, ex-principal of Amar Singh college who retired in 1966, had once shared with him. Mufti Jalaludin, an Arabic scholar is believed to be mentor of late chief minister, Syed Mir Qasim and Mufti Bahaudin.

Post September 2014 floods, he had great concern for Jhelum as well. Mir Javed Jaffar, chief engineer flood and irrigation department, was also accompanying CM during his last tour. He repeatedly asked about the beautification of the embankments Jhelum. He was concerned for each minute thing and he even enquired about the empty iron rods erected on a bund in downtown to which Jaffar replied, “Sir, construction is still going on”.

Despite his earlier engagements with the Srinagar city, late CM was believed to be the head of a ‘rural party’, which couldn’t manage to get a single seat in 2002 elections in Srinagar. To wash out that taboo, Mufti this time focused on the ‘development’ of Srinagar. He had instructed his private secretary to arrange a ‘tour of the city every month’. As per official sources, “Vertical colonies was his dream project, for which he wished to go for a public-private partnerships. He was aware how people in old city are suffering because of small spaces.” In addition to that he had instructed his officers to start his speeches with ‘housing’ accommodation. “He was in pain to see people living in difficult situations.”

Sensing this pain late CM was himself involved in almost all developmental projects for Srinagar city. During his last tour, he was checking drawing himself besides asking the concerned officials vigorously for final dates when the projects will be ready for the general masses. He himself set some deadlines for the projects.

After Hazratbal shrine, Mufti inaugurated a community hall at historic Jamia Masjid, flyover at TRC, Khanqah- e- Muala shrine, Tomb of Gani Kashmiri at Rajouri Kadal, Imam Bara at Zadibal, Eidgah, Sports Stadia at Rajouri Kadal, Rudpora, Sangarmal City Centre, Basant Bagh Ghat.

When he was about to finish his day long tour, Mufti seemed drained out, his lips were sealed with a white layer and he looked too weak to walk. But his daughter, then held his arms tight, and they were found walking arm-in-arm. Once he was done with his tour, he straightaway went to Nehru Guest house, where he attended some meetings as well.

But it was during this tour only that he developed chest infection. Next day he was scheduled to meet the officials of LAWDA and SDA but they were cancelled as his health condition deteriorated. He was shifted to AIIMS where he breathed his last on January 6, 2016.

The hectic schedule of December 22, 2015, however did not surprise his close aides, as it was Sayeed’s normal style of work. “From last 10 months he worked tirelessly as if he knew he had less time. He assured follow-ups of all developmental works himself,” says Waheed Para, political analyst in CM’s secretariat. He says that not only on Dec 22, but late CM worked like a ‘labourer’ for last nine months “without even thinking of his health.”

Till his last tour, he was repeatedly stressing on the revival of night life, he wanted to give back the ‘lost’ era to Srinagarites.

A law graduate’s journey from small south Kashmir town to the highest power corridors in Delhi is scripted with twists and turns. Shams Irfan reviews the forgone era to understand the initial years of Mufti’s politics

Prime Ministers Nehru and Bakhshi while Indira Gandhi is standing besides her father.

In late 1950s, when Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was in jail for allegedly conspiring against the state (Kashmir Conspiracy Case), Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, an ambitious young law graduate from Aligarh Muslim University, took his first step into politics by becoming district convenor of Democratic National Conference (DNC) – a small political force of left-leaning politicians mostly defected from the NC that Bakhshi hijacked from Sheikh. This was an ambitious Mufti’s first formal post.

With Congress (I) ruling the state through Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, once a close confident of Sheikh and his deputy who helped Jawahar Lal Nehru topple Sheikh’s popular government in 1953, Mufti was fermenting his political course cautiously.

But, before Mufti could have stabled his feet in J&K’s tumultuous political waters, G M Sadiq led DNC was disintegrated within two years of its formation.

However, DNC created by Delhi to counter Sheikh’s NC, Mufti along with most of its members were accommodated in NC led by Bakshi.

“With Sheikh in jail, it (NC) was reduced to just an extension of Congress in J&K,” said an NC loyalist who faced Bakshi era wrath for his underground political activism against what he calls “puppet regime”.

In 1962, Mufti got a mandate to represent Bijbehara in state assembly. He won unopposed. “Anybody and everybody was a leader as long as Sheikh’s Sahab was behind the bars,” says the NC loyalist who is in his late eighties now.

A year later, in May, after Nehru’s Congress lost three important parliamentary by-elections, Bakhshi, after serving as Prime Minister of Kashmir for eleven years was persuaded by Nehru to step down. After a brief stint of 140 days by Khwaja Shamsuddin Kath, the reigns of the state were finally passed on to Mufti’s DNC time friend G M Sadiq.

During this time, recalls Mohammad Sayeed Malik, a veteran journalist and Mufti’s close friend, young Mufti focused his energies in developing contacts with people, particularly in south Kashmir.  “Unlike other politicians Mufti’s biggest strength was that he was connected to the grass root level always,” recalls Malik. “He knew the strength lies with the people. Without staying in contact with ones voters, long term survival in politics is impossible.”

Cultivating his contacts that Mufti had developed by his long sojourns in peripheral areas of south Kashmir he retained his seat from Bijbehara in 1967. “This boasted his confidence and made him a popular figure in Kashmir,” claims Malik.

As a reward, Malik recalls, Mufti was made deputy minister by Sadiq in the same year. But despite Mufti’s long association with Sadiq – that goes back to their time together in DNC – he was close to Syed Mir Qasim. “Mufti’s political career matured around friends like Sadiq, Qasim, D P Dhar and G M Shah. But if you ask me whom he was close to, it was Qasim always,” claims Malik.

What helped Mufti achieve meteoric rise in Kashmir politics during those troubled times was because of two things: first there was no Sheikh Abdullah around, and second he always chose his friends well.

Mufti Mohammad Sayeed

After Sadiq’s death in 1971, Congress passed on the command of politically sensitive Kashmir to Mufit’s close friend Qaism. And Qaism, within a year of taking over, made Mufti a cabinet minister.

The same year, in 1972, Mufti was nominated as Congress party’s leader in the state’s Legislative Council. “This nomination elevated Mufti’s political stature drastically. From that day onwards he became Delhi’s key man in Kashmir,” recalls Malik.

Being Indira Gandhi’s pointsman in Kashmir post Nehru’s death in 1964, Mufti rose through ranks within the Congress.

In 1975 year Sheikh Abdullah came back from his political exile after in wake of Beig-Parthasathy talks and was bestowed the leader of a Congress house. The new cabinet took oath and Congress was pushed to margins – a situation that led Congress to withdraw its support that resulted in 1977 elections.

Mufti was made the leader of the Congress Legislature Party and president of Pradesh Congress. “During those days nobody dared to stand in front of Sheikh except Mufti,” claims Malik.

Despite being leader of the Congress Legislature Party and president of Pradesh Congress, Mufti met Sheikh only once, that too briefly. “He was the only politicians in Kashmir who never bowed down before Sheikh’s mighty persona,” claims Malik.

With Sheikh reclaiming his political forte almost instantly after his arrival in Srinagar in 1975, Mufti stood firm and connected to the masses. “It was either Shiekh or Mufti. There was no other person in Kashmir politics who mattered as much as they did,” claims Malik.

Both Mufti and Sheikh stayed on the far ends of political spectrum with former representing Congress’ integrationist politics, seen as an agenda against Kashmir’s special status by Sheikh, while latter represented a more Kashmir centric inclusive political ideology.

In late 70s, anybody who represented non-regional political party in Kashmir, in Mufti’s case Congress, was seen as an outsider. Sheikh used to call them “gutter worm”.

But, outsider or not, Mufti remained as integral to Kashmir’s politics as any other leader!

By Shakir Mir

The bed-ridden J&K’s chief minister in Delhi’s AIIMS perhaps fuelled the rumour mills like never before in his political career. On Thursday, with the end of Delhi’s best bet in Kashmir, no room for speculation was left.

The Gupkar Road Mufti Sayeed cleared for the civilian movement during his first stint as J&K CM was barred for the civilian vehicular movement instantly. As foot journey ensued on Srinagar’s ‘powerful’ street, the change was too glaring.  Ahead was the crowd of the party workers, newsmen, forces. The gates of Fairview were shut. Everyone was waiting for the body to arrive. Even the death couldn’t cease the cycle of rumours.

As the rush peaked up, the gates of the ‘first house’ were thrown open. Inside, the air was mournful. Some top party workers sat wearing the saddest faces. Among the mourners, the Nizam of Bandipora was crying on every possible shoulder lend to him. The standout moment was when crying PDP’s general secretary hugged the state’s top cop, K Rajendra, concealing his emotions.

In all this, a leafless Chinar tree in front of white painted building was staring vacant at everyone. Security men were talking how the spot would be frequented by Mufti. Nostalgia, reminiscence and unabated rumours were warming up the wintry lawn. Down the concrete path towards the entrance, the bustle was captivating. Almost all heads inside the lawn were shifting at it, anticipating the body bag at any moment.

But the final homecoming of the man was taking its time. For a while, voices began echoing from his official address. With who’s who continued pouring, many were excited to step inside the place known to devour countless lives.

Before becoming Fairview, the place was a haunting structure. As Papa-II, it devastated many lives in Kashmir. Even, Ashok Jaitley, the former chief secretary couldn’t exorcise the haunt factor. “How Mufti managed to live in such a place seems strange,” the voices grew shriller. The talking heads were mainly PDP foot soldiers. Next big crowd was that of state machinery.

At 3:45 PM, the ambulance drove in. The sight stirred up emotions in party supporters, raising slogans, glorifying the fallen patron. With a new cavalcade rush, sober Omar Abdullah walked in with shocked G N Azad. Following the trail were Mufti’s granddaughter, daughter, wife, and PDP’s rank and file.

Immediately, the withered Chinar tree became a public specter. Lensmen were all over it to capture the tri-colour cum state flag wrapped casket of state’s top executive—who like his mentor GM Sadiq and nemesis Sheikh M Abdullah died in office.

Uproar erupted when Mufti’s body was taken inside the tent packed with mourners. Minutes later, men carrying the casket came out after putting up lot of struggle. The body was taken inside a makeshift shed for final ablution. With washers busy with the last bath, the home minister Rajnath Singh drove in to pay homage to the erstwhile home minister.

On the brink of funeral, the state police force tried to give the state honour to late CM inside his lawn itself. But the supporters resisted forcing the authorities to offer the funeral prayers in scheduled venue of Sher-e-Kashmir Stadium.

In a matter of minutes, the silent Gupkar Road witnessed footfalls like never before. With supporters and party workers, the silent opposition walked together. The top brass in state machinery was on its toes, ensuring the smooth passage of the fallen leader.

Inside the stadium, several men were waiting for participating in funeral prayers. As the rush swelled, Mufti’s longtime associate, Naeem Akhtar led the funeral prayers. A quick wreath ceremony followed by state honour marked the end of Srinagar Journey of the man who was witness, active in Srinagar and its politics for nearly 60 years.

At dusk, the man—“Indian by conviction”—was taken home on the final journey.

Mufti Sayeed wore many hats, flirted with different parties and played many games in his long political career. After turmoil decimated Kashmir gave him a foothold, Mufti started his Kashmir rediscovery, built a Kashmir-centric party that played a key role in the last two decades. R S Gull details Mufti’s serious efforts for triggering changes after adopting Kashmir afresh

Ahead of 2014 J&K Assembly elections, Mufti Sayeed addressing a rally in valley.

After helping Narasimaha Rao government to win a crucial battle in the UN on Kashmir early 1994, Dr Farooq Abdullah returned to London, his ‘home’ since 1990. By the time Delhi started desperately looking for him in late 1995 for elections; Mufti Sayeed was already in Srinagar. Then Janta Dal was one of Srinagar’s major unionist outposts. Manned by Abdul Qayoom of Chrar-e-Sharief, who later joined NC and became its Education Minister in 1996, JD was perhaps the only unionist political voice in a militarized Kashmir.

Then, Mufti would fly to Srinagar, meet people at his Nawgam home and return. Around 1995 he felt encouraged to occasionally visit peripheries. Later, his daughter Mehbooba would accompany him. But most of their travels would end up in close door meetings with their acquaintances, mostly Congressmen.

In 1996 when Delhi finally decided to hold Lok Sabha polls, NC was not ready. An uninterested Mufti chose Kathiyar in Bihar than Islamabad in Kashmir. But three months later, when elections for the state assembly were held in September-October, Kashmir’s unionist block had changed. NC was contesting all seats and Mufti, after his ghar wapsi to Congress, was appointed the new PCC Chief. Congress won seven seats – two in Kashmir, including Mehbooba, who became the CLP leader.

This election, considered unfair for massive involuntary coerced participation, however, proved the real game-changer for Muftis’. They built on this small success and eventually changed J&K’s political landscape. It introduced the credible opposition for the first time in history.

Mehbooba took her time to pick-up the basics of her new role and soon started interventions as lawmaker. Being the only women on opposition benches, the other was a minister, Sakina Ittoo, Dr Abdullah would ensure she gets enough time and be heard.

She took her new role very seriously and would often shuttle between the House and her constituency. This led Mufti to win South Kashmir Lok Sabha seat for Congress in 1998, his political career’s first major victory.

Changed Politics

VP Singh, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Dr Farooq Abdullah

As Muftis’ got a strong and respectable foothold, it set them thinking. Then, the father and daughter were the most mobile political beings. While visiting the periphery, they confronted new challenges on ground. Then, visits had only one purpose, to mourn the deaths and register the condolences. Human rights were the principle issue with destitution and destruction playing second fiddle. A nationalist Congress would accommodate only part of the concern that Muftis’ felt on ground. People closer to Mufti believe that the situation on ground forced him to reorient his politics.

Then, he surprised everybody. At a luncheon meeting at his Nawgam residence on July 25, 1999, Mufti announced his resignation from Congress’s basic membership. Mehbooba had already put in her papers as a lawmaker. The resignations came after Muftis’ felt lost in the din of national politics in their party’s Pachmerhi brainstorming in Madhya Pradesh in September 1998.

“National parties must read the writing on the wall and accept the ground reality that security forces can not bring peace,” Mufti said. “They must realize that only unconditional talks with people of Kashmir can restore peace.”

Mufti got emotional while talking about feeling choked within the parliament and the party. “In Parliament, I demanded an unconditional dialogue with separatists and my own party colleague Balram Jhakar opposed it,” Mufti said. “People outside (J&K) are not fully aware of the Kashmir situation and the national parties for their vested interests want to solve Kashmir issue on the barrel of the gun.”

Dubbing, NC as “anti peace” and “anti dialogue”, Mufti talked about the inevitability of an alterative that can raise voice for talks and against bullet for bullet policy. He believed strong voices for peace will force Delhi to talk. “The masses are in deep trouble and badly need support,” Mufti said. “It is responsibility of the political leadership to provide them that.”

By July 28, it was another luncheon meet and PDP was born. Its flag was green and it revived pen-and-inkpot that originally belonged to Muslim United Front, as its electoral symbol. Later that autumn, he contested Lok Sabha but lost his South Kashmir berth to NC’s Ali Mohammad Nayak. With a new party and a new slogan, he was playing a much bigger game. Ballots and not bullets, restoring basic human rights, battle of ideas, peace with dignity and unconditional talks were the key elements in his completely refurbished political basket.

Mass Contacts

For the next three years, the new party with new faces unleashed a massive campaign. They would never leave an occasion to corner the ruling NC and usually it was human rights that was the main mover on ground.

Apart from travelling a lot and expressing sympathies with the bereaved – this had made NC to dub Ms Mufti as Kashmir’s Rudhali, PDP cashed in on two things: failures of the government for not protecting the people from the forces it controlled and bullet was no answer to bullet.

Gains were instant. When state went for by-polls in Bejbehara and Langate – where incumbent NC lawmaker died, PDP registered its two victories within less than first year of its existence. As Abdul Rehman Veeri filled the berth left by Mehbooba, she opted to contest 1999 Lok Sabha from Srinagar where Omar won and she emerged the runner up. It was a grand plan to introduce the party in run-up to the assembly polls in 2002.

Distinction was getting visible. NC was unwilling, if not unsupportive to an unconditional dialogue, unlike PDP. In wake of Pokhran test, NC wanted an attack on Pakistan and PDP started batting for talks with the neighbour. NC improved the legal basket to fight militancy and PDP opposed it. It gradually encouraged people to see emergence of a political alternative to PDP, albeit at the cost of dividing the mandate as eventually happened.

2002 Surprise

Things started unfolding apparently as per the script. In elections of 2002 autumn, NC faced music for being “anti-people”. PDP won 16 seats and finished runner-up at eight. In Kashmir, it polled 24.51 percent of the total polled votes.

For a party that lacked any cadre base unlike NC, operated from Mufti’s Nowgam home as it had no office and had its poll manifesto Xeroxed and not printed, the success was phenomenal. It was still small if compared to NC but Omar’s maiden loss from Ganderbal prevented the party from staking claims over the government.

Congress eventually opened talks, flying Dr Manmohan Singh to Srinagar to negotiate the deal. Mufti was team’s first half batsman. For the first time in 27 years, power had an address far away from Gupkar and that was history. When the then Police Chief A K Suri led his top guns to formally call on a Chief Minister sitting on a carpet, his colleagues termed the meeting Shakti Puja. As Mufti moved the Chief Minister’s official residence to the M A Road in 2003, it marked the beginning of a series of changes that defined the new Mufti.

On October 27, 2002, Mufti announced POTA roll back. Drafted specially by the BJP-led NDA, this law was promulgated in J&K almost instantly without waiting for its passage in the Lok Sabha. Without a bail, a person’s immovable property would get seized under this law. Promulgated on November 29, 2001, the then Home Minister Khalid Najib Suharwardy told the state legislature in March 2002 that already 307 POTA cases stand registered and 72 persons arrested.

Soon after, political prisoners started going home. Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Geelani was flown from prison to a Delhi hospital.

In February came the formal announcement of disbanding of SOG. Territorial authorities of District SPs was restored that stopped SOG from being an exclusive organization, running parallel to its other half.

Gradually, Mufti sanitized the entire security grid about upholding the human rights and the message went deep down and the people, mostly in the periphery, started feeling a change. Ikhwani terror ceased. Though the government failed in investigating the grave atrocities reported in past, as it had committed itself to, it was always on tenterhooks to see the situation remains in control. Wherever the atrocities would get reported, it would rush to manage the fallout thus preventing opposition to take advantage of that.

In his maiden tenure as Chief Minister, Mufti did compromise on the domicile issue of state women marrying non-locals. Done under intense Congress pressure, this has gradually created a huge mess which, if tackled, might take years to clear.

Expanding Focus

In a way, Mufti was lucky. Post-1999, Delhi and Islamabad were desperate to pick up threads and rework the relationship as 26/11 had already put pressure on Pakistan. Mufti pushed himself into the frame and facilitated a series of initiatives that led to his image-makeover.

Firstly, he invited Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, ensured a good audience and suggested strongly for Delhi-Islamabad talks. Vajpayee agreed which led to the silence on the borders in November 2003, for the first time after 1990. This ceasefire was the bedrock of various subsequent developments including the creation of the fence on the LoC later.

When he raised signboards for the road to Muzaffarabad, people cracked jokes. Eventually, when India and Pakistan agreed to open two windows for the divided families in Uri and Poonch on April 7, 2005, it led streets to believe that Mufti was the real game-changer. Barter trade took the same route in 2008, almost in panic because of unrest.

Even talks between Delhi and moderate Hurriyat started in 2003. Though NDA started, the UPA failed to follow up thus killing the cosmetic initiative.

Congress being PDPs mother-stock knew which spanner works and when. After Mufti completed his three years, he was initially promised that Congress does not believe in ‘changing the horse midway’ but was later told to hand over power to Ghulam Nabi Azad. This hurt him so deep that he never forgot it. In between, Mufti played crafty in preventing a Congress-forced division in the party.

A sulking Mufti, literally terrorized by Congress appointed Governor Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha, did not freeze his agenda after handing over power to Azad, the man whom he had baptized into Congress. By February 2007, Mufti shocked his ally with three demands: troop cut in proportion to the improvement in situation, demilitarize social infrastructure and horticulture orchards and repealing AFSPA. As Azad opposed the idea and suggested political parties to surrender their security, Mufti volunteered. Ms Mufti travelled deep down south without security. As the security grid asserted status quo, PDP boycotted Azad’s cabinet meetings and the tensions led to a series of interventions by Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. By early April, Delhi announced setting up of three committees. There was some follow up but the idea got buried in the subsequent controversies in summer.

At the peak of unrest over the land row in 2008, PDP refused to accept Congress’s request for “half an hour” and withdrew its support. “There were two factors responsible for the decision,” a top PDP man who has been very close to Mufti said. “Firstly, we wanted to convey that PDP can not be part of any situation that would lead to killing of Kashmiris as ants. Secondly, Mufti wanted to convey to Kashmir that Delhi can not make and break governments in J&K as real power lies with the people so we created history’s first precedence in which a Kashmir party pulled down a Delhi government against Delhi’s will.” Whatever the reason, Mufti avenged Congress.

Mufti Sayeed greeting Omar Abdullah on 2015 Eid-ul-Fitr at Dargah, Hazratbal.

Congress Bites Back

The 2008 unrest started easing after N N Vohra replaced Sinha and preparation for elections started. It witnessed PDP unveiling its Self Rule document thus offering party a DNA to compete with the grand old NC that historically sold greater autonomy.

PDP played its game well and improved its tally in the 76-member assembly to 21. Though the old guard in Congress was supportive of picking up the threads and re-embrace PDP, 10-Janpath took Rahul’s buddy route and roped in NC under Omar Abdullah.

This left Mufti with the option of pricking Omar, if and when required. The first salvo was fired when PDP tabled documents in the house accusing Omar of being part of 2008-sleaze racket. He resigned only to resume duties after central government certified his non-involvement. Subsequently, the twin murders of Shopian in 2009 and the mass unrest in 2010 that led to killing of 120 youth, kept Omar under a constant pressure. September 2014 floods were the last major crisis that Omar faced.

Amid claims that he was learning from his mistakes, Omar somehow managed to keep the show going. This led Mufti to keep his ‘battle of ideas’ across the Pir Panchal to Rajouri and Poonch.

As elections were held in backdrop of a strong anti-incumbency against NC, Mufti expected 35 berths but got only 28 in a hung house. Mufti took nearly two months in reading the outcome, refused to ally with Congress or NC and eventually inked a deal with BJP.

Competing Against His Own Image

Former Jammu Kashmir Chief Minister along with his wife and daughter paid a visit to Agra on November o4, 2015 (Wednesday) with a wish to see the wonder of the world Taj Mahal.

PDP led a high octane campaign against BJP created sort of a scare that eventually improved poll participation. Post-results, Mufti decided to go against the wind, inked a power-sharing deal and justified it for the reasons of ethno-cultural inclusiveness.

With age not on his side, he wanted to push part of his agenda quickly but was checkmated by his ally. Nothing much could he do on the administrative front, his main forte from his 2002 era. Eventually he had only two priorities – a fiscal package and early re-engagement between Delhi and Islamabad. While Prime Minister Modi snubbed him for his “advice”, he announced a package, albeit skipping the key resources required for rebuilding flood devastated Kashmir. A month later and after his series of offshore visits, Modi started tackling Pakistan. That satisfaction, doctors at AIIMS said, was clear when Mufti talked during his last 10 days of hospitalization. He believed no government can deliver in J&K as long as Pakistan remains angry, a reason why he had thanked Islamabad soon after taking oath in March.

Iftikhar Gilani

In early 2005, when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was at the helm of affairs, I was returning to Srinagar from apple rich city of Sopore, sitting on the front seat of a TATA sumo vehicle. Somewhere past Sangarama crossing, driver quipped, ‘haalaat Kashmir mein bohot threek hogayee hein (Situation has improved in Kashmir very much). Asked the basis of his observation, he innocently pointed out that he can now easily overtake Army vehicles, while plying on the busy Srinagar-Muzaffarabad popularly called Rawalpindi road.  He did so to my delight and at some places waved to soldiers who were either guarding the road or boarding vehicles with their packed baggage probably leaving for holidays to support his argument.

Just few years ago, it was unthinkable. No vehicle could overtake Army convoys. It was a small step, but had huge psychological effect. It limited journey from Sopore to Srinagar back to one-and-half hour as it used to be in peace times, rather following convoys and obeying their instructions.  Mufti’s three-year tenure between 2002 and 2005 is adjudged the best in terms of governance, even by his worst detractors.  As luck followed him, his tenure also coincided with the peace process with Pakistan, then, led by President Pervez Musharraf. The tenures of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh’s UPA-I also helped him to carve a constituency for peace. To add to his luck, his tenure also coincided with the appointment of Lt General V G Patankar, as 15th Corps Commander who also conceded him a political space, and agreed on changing timings of convoys to extend some relief to general public. It was during his tenure, the LoC was opened for bus service and later for trade.  Brigadier (rtd) Gurmeet Kanwal, who had commanded forces in the Valley told this writer once, that they had definite instructions till 2006, almost even a year after Mufti had left, that not to go after militants, till they attack your camp, to avoid collateral damages. It changed later, when the new corps commander told us, he wanted results (meaning to show dead bodies).

Till his shifting to Srinagar permanently in 2000, Media corps in Delhi, every year in winters was to prepare their taste buds, to a sumptuous Kashmiri feast, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed used to host at his Tuglaq Lane residence. The event was marked in the media calendar to the extent, that on the onset of winters, fraternity would often enquire, from each other or with Mufti’s aide Mehta, about the luncheon. When Jagmohan was appointed urban and housing minister, he threw Mufti out of this bungalow. It was same Jagmoham, whom Mufti as union home minister had appointed governor of Jammu and Kashmir, receiving flak from left and right. But, he still continued tradition of hosting this lunch, at his two-bed room flat, in the outskirts of Delhi in a high-rise building. To the astonishment of many media persons, a person occupying cabinet portfolio in the union cabinet twice, longest serving state congress chief and perhaps the only genuine Indian voice in Kashmir for over decades has no mansion in Delhi.

I had first interaction with Mufti at an Iftaar party hosted by his former cabinet colleague Arif Mohammad Khan. He was in political wilderness. The Janata Dal had disintegrated. But as former home minister, he had much security fanfare around him. He patted me on back, reminding that I was amongst just few Kashmiri Muslims, who have ventured to explore career in journalism in Delhi. He told me to remain in touch with my two predecessor Sheikh Manzoor Ahmed, editor in UNI and Mohammad Sayeed Malik, then editor-in-chief of Sunday Observer. But I had deep suspension about him. I knew him, as Delhi’s collaborator, rocking democratic processes, and a conspirator. I realized his importance in 1997, when chief minister Dr Farooq Abdullah hosted a press conference cum lunch in Delhi, to celebrate completion of one year in office. Mufti had just returned to Congress. After the press conference, in the corners of J&K House at Prithiviraj, Farooq in whispers wanted to know, from almost everyone to get whiff of plans of Mufti. Who was backing him in Delhi and what he is up to? Farooq’s media advisor O N Kaul, advised me to keep close watch on Mufti, as from hereafter, he is news. Kaul, who had switched to government after a distinguished journalistic career, had premonition.

But due to his straight talk, Mufti could never carve a political space in Kashmir. He believed so plainly that Kashmir’s fate was linked to India, which had hardly any takers. The mainstream political camp in Kashmir is plagued with a peculiar predicament, managing public sentiments to seek votes and then keeping rulers and agencies in Delhi happy to continue in power.

The National Conference (NC) patron Dr Farooq Abdullah owes his successful political career to having mastered skills of combining deception and contradictions, to keep both sides in good humour. His arch rival Mufti had attempted to nurture a true Indian constituency in Kashmir, to the chagrin of towering leader Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who had gone to extent of supervising social boycott of political activists, aligning with national parties. But in 1999, Mufti also realized that road to claim power in Srinagar goes through a regional Kashmiri nationalist party.

I asked him once, why Congress opted for governor’s rule after withdrawing support from Ghulam Mohammad Shah government in March 1986. He could have there and then become the Chief Minister. He replied that Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had called him to Delhi. In the meeting Congress Working President Arjun Singh was also present. Briefing Rajiv about the withdrawal of the support, Singh said that it has been a long time, precisely after 1975, that a nationalist government will come to power in Srinagar. “We must make the government,” Singh suggested Rajiv, according to Mufti. “(because) the nation is expecting us to fully merge Kashmir now with India and something needs to be done to Article 370 now because people are looking at us to take the plunge.” Mufti told me that he was shocked over Arjun Singh’s assertion that he had known as a very secular leader. Mufti said that was his first friction with new Congress leadership. Once back home, Mufti flew to Srinagar and created a situation that led to governor rule.

Two days after the end of Kargil War in July 1999, he and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti resigned from Congress and formed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), to “persuade the government of India to initiate an unconditional dialogue for resolution of Kashmir problem, putting the first formidable challenge to the NC government, which used to thrive in absence of any local Kashmiri alternative.  He told me once, “I cannot promise Pakistan or right to self-determination to people. But I can promise them access and open routes to Pakistan, by changing status-quo along the LoC.”

To his credit, he removed illegitimacy attached to elections in Kashmir, following the mass rigging of 1987 assembly polls. Mainstream politics in Kashmir was seen abode of renegade militants, criminals, corrupt and overused politicians. The PDP brought legitimacy to elections and lured people from the fence to participate in the democratic exercise. Even when in Congress, from 1996 onwards, under his directions, Mehbooba had begun to reach out to the families of people, killed by security forces.

In an unusual move for any mainstream party, where the NC leaders, never treaded, She  occasionally attended the funeral ceremonies of militants, showed great empathy for bereaved women, often weeping along with them – obviously a clever strategy to claim an opposition space, from the separatists. Many observers believe 2002 was her elections. She managed to win 16 seats for the PDP, still in political infancy reducing the ages old NC to mere 28 from over 60 seats. But, it is believed that Congress put a rider to lending support, at the instance of hard state. The rider was to allow Mufti, who till then had almost retired from active politics to lead the government, rather to give reins to the greenhorn daughter. Thereafter, he never looked back.

Born on January 12, 1936 in south Kashmir township of Bijbehara, he took a great risk by aligning with the BJP to form the government in 2015. In the past also, he has received flak when he choose Jagmohan as governor of state in 1990 and suspended the J&K assembly. The massacres and human rights abuses that followed made him a kind of a hate figure in the valley. He was also instrumental in appointment of General S K Sinha as governor in 2003, who was later instrumental in creating Amarnath crises in 2008, consuming the PDP-Congress government. But in 2015, aligning with the BJP, he had a point. With the BJP ruling at the Centre, he told this writer, a week before taking oath, he would persuade Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revive peace process with Pakistan. Modi’s latest overtures to Pakistan are credited to Mufti’s hour-long meeting with him on October 15, where he took considerable time to impress upon the PM to open channels with Pakistan, for the sake of a success of alliance  government in Kashmir. “A successful government in Kashmir was not possible with a hostile Pakistan on borders. I conveyed this to the PM,” he had told this writer.

Many may see him as sowing seeds of disenchantment in Kashmir, be by withdrawing support to Sheikh Abdullah government in 1978 or dismissal of Farooq government in 1984 at the behest of the hard state. His aides, say after 1998, he had switched loyalties. He, however, continued to be a single most threat to Abdullah family. It is not a coincidence that doctors attending to him at the AIIMS had diagnosed him, suffering from septicaemia and “opportunist infection”, a medical term, meaning infection that occurs because of the weakened immune system. Only history will judge him: whether he was an opportunist politician or with a heart at the right place, for Kashmiri people, who are still awaiting a genuine democracy to take roots in Kashmir to empower them. But a good heart has stopped beating.

Sir Muhammad Iqbal may have said for such people: “How hard life is, how easy is death! In the garden of existence, death is as cheap as the morning breeze. There is no room for complaint, nor power of speech..What is life?  A noose that squeezes the throat.”

Aasman Teri Lahad  Par Shabnam Afshani Karay…Aameen!

 Iftikhar Gilani is national bureau chief of DNA based in New Delhi.

Post-1996, Mufti Sayeed rallied behind Indo-Pak relations and eventually created a political space for unionists in militancy-hit Kashmir. Though coming at the fag end of his political career, Mufti’s soft politics made him distinct from his opponents, reports Riyaz Ul Khaliq

Pakistan premier, Mian Nawaz Sharief, greeting Narendra Modi on his being swore-in as PM of India in New Delhi in 2014.

Even the bed-ridden (now late) J&K’s chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed was sensitive enough about the upshot of Pathankot attack. While the whole Kashmir was guessing of his well-being, he shot his statement of condemnation: “Such dastardly acts are aimed at creating uncertainty and derailing the peace process between India and Pakistan”.

That was Mufti Sayeed, who post-1996 cut an image of an ardent advocate of Indo-Pak relations. The new role began after staging comeback to state politics two decades ago. He gave the unionist politics a new narrative by stating that any government, a unionist one, will be successful in J&K only when India and Pakistan have good relations.

This was a clear departure from politics played by his nemesis Farooq Abdullah who might have lost the count of his statements wherein he “bombed” Pakistan for Kashmir problem. But, Mufti—the seasoned politician known for his calculated political manoeuvres, was cut from a different fabric.

Credited with opening of cross LoC bus service, first time since partition, in 2015, Mufti toured border areas of Jammu region, asserting that places like Suchetgarh will be opened, too. But, Mufti of 2015 was different, believes Prof Noor A Baba, a political commentator.

“The opening of borders is not a new thing,” he says, “it has been happening in West. In J&K’s case, the idea was generated by civil society, cross border intellectuals and track-II diplomacy.” Mufti’s first stint witnessed a “Himalayan” changes. Kashmir was just coming out of throes of decadal conflict. It was a best opportunity for the politician of Mufti’s stature to strike a change. “What equally comforted the people was his healing touch doctrine,” says a Srinagar-based scribe. “It was his game. And unlike his fellow unionists, Mufti made it a point that Pakistan needed to be engaged.”

Mufti’s coming into J&K politics actually provided the space to unionists, continues Baba. “His slogan,” he says, “Goli say Nahi, Boli Say changed the narrative of unionist politics here.” What led to this change was Mufti’s Pakistan mantra. “What Mufti did was—he started calling Pakistan as stakeholder and a must to ensure stable J&K,” says Baba.

But, Sidiq Wahid, an academician-commentator believes Mufti’s Pakistan bogey wasn’t possible sans “New Delhi’s generosity”.

“Obviously,” he says, “this (Mufti’s call for Pakistan engagement) needed synergy between Delhi and him.” Wahid says that Mufti was successful in opening of the borders and “that is what all stakeholders want”.

Mufti took the step and facilitated the opening of Muzaffarabad route, he says, started cross LoC trade besides rehabilitating Pak trainees. “But the question remains whether these steps were successful?” Wahid asks.

A “strong” advocate of Indo-Pak bonhomie, Mufti’s politics post-2000 focused on dialogue. It was in his tenure that government of India officially invited All Parties Hurriyat Conference for bilateral engagement which was positively responded by a faction, too. “Surely, it was on his insistence that Hurriyat Conference needed to be engaged that GoI started negotiation, however, they failed,” the scribe says.

Mufti’s masterstroke was his belief on soft politics—the emerging negotiating medium between opponents worldwide. “You see,” Prof Baba says, “unlike Farooq Abdullah who out rightly rejected Pakistan and Hurriyat Conference, Mufti adopted the soft power and facilitated people-to-people engagements, trade. That’s way he was successful.”

The launch of Cross LoC Bus Service via Srinagar-Muzaffarabad route in 2005.

Even Mufti’s classmate and Hurriyat Conference (m) executive member, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat says despite political and ideological differences, Mufti was for peace and friendship between Indian and Pakistan. “And he played a key role in his life to promote friendly relations between these two hostile countries,” he says.

But in his second stint as CM lasting for over nine months, Mufti wasn’t at his fluent best to recreate his 2002-05 ‘magic’. But the man who thanked Pakistan besides separatists and militants soon after his oath ceremony wasn’t all hushed up. There was “Mufti hand” behind Modi’s latest surprise visit to Pakistan, a report suggests. “It was Mufti’s an hour long meeting with PM Modi in October that was one of the reasons why such a meeting happened.”

Ess Ahmad Pirzada, a commentator who writes on separatist politics of J&K, says since Pakistan has always been “beloved” to Kashmiris—and this where Mufti, known for witty politics, stepped in. “His disbanding of SOG, Ikhwan and ensuring corruption free governance gave people something new,” he says. “More so, when he talked Pakistan as being stakeholder, he made his space into public domain.”

Pirzada claims that Delhi needed someone to legitimise its claim again on Kashmir. “And Mufti proved to be best man,” he says. “Nineties was plagued by excesses unleashed by NC. It was then Delhi brought Mufti to clean it to empower Delhi, once again.”

In an overwhelming situation triggered by conflict, Ms Mehbooba Mufti led a marathon campaign to make her father relevant to Kashmir, thus creating a new alternative in unionist politics. Now she is confronted with the crucial decision-making about the power and the party that she inherited. Masood Hussain traces the trajectory of a woman to the corridors of power, an area dominated by males for centuries

The situation is pretty unprecedented. PDP president, Ms Mehbooba Mufti who was expected to get into the “over-size” shoes of her father and mentor within hours of his demise is restricted to the Fairview Guest House, at Srinagar’s power street, the Gupkar Road. The delay has slipped J&K into governors’ rule, for the second time since 2014.

Mufti was J&K’s third Chief Minister who died in office. In case of Ghulam Mohammad Sadiq and Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, the successors took oath of office, almost the same day. But Ms Mufti initially took the mourning route to skip immediate succession. Now the real politic has taken over. Ally BJP is in shock. It runs the risk of losing the ground if the party does not resume power.

Ms Mufti has been a reluctant and an accidental politician. She joined politics to please her father. She was part of the decision-making throughout but never took a decision without consulting her father. With Mufti not around, Ms Mufti will have to take a call finally. And the issue on her table is not an ordinary one. Her political future rests on this decision.

Despite being daughter of a ‘powerful’ man, Ms Mufti had a routine upbringing. Born (May 22, 1959) at Akhran Nowpora, she schooled from Presentation Convent in Srinagar, graduated from state-run Women’s College in Jammu with English literature and then law from University of Kashmir.

Soon married within the extended family (to her father’s cousin), the relationship remained edgy throughout. By the time, they decided to call it a day; she was already mother of two daughters – Irtiqa and Iltija. The trained lawyer went perhaps to court for her divorce only. By then, Mufti Sayeed as India’s home minister had faced an embarrassing situation when JKLF kidnapped his medico daughter. The family moved to Delhi.

Knowing the unpredictability in politics, she started working. For nearly five years, she served the Bombay Mercantile Bank at its Asif Ali Road branch in Delhi. Later she was briefly with East West Airlines. By then, her father decided to return home and was desperately looking for candidate in 1996. Ms Mufti resigned and contested from Bijbehara. With both her daughters in the primary school, Ms Mufti won the election and became a lawmaker.

News photographer Abdul Qayoom has extensively covered Ms Mufti’s formative years in politics at the peak of strife. “For the initial months, I was unable to get a good photograph because she would hold the mike with both her hands and would see into it while speaking like a shy shadow,” Qayoom remembers. “It took her time to lift her eyes and look towards the crowd.” The real orator striking a chord with the crowd emerged much later.

To grieve, Mehbooba would join families whose kith and kin were consumed by conflict.

Qayoom remembers Ms Mufti as a “remarkable woman” who exhibited bravery at a time when it was difficult to even move around. He remembers one of her visits to Harai (Kupwara) where Ikhwanis operating from a local garrison, had made life of a young lady hell. “She drove to the village and trekked to her home and after meeting the lady she visited the army camp,” Qayoom remembers. “As she was talking to the officers, I was shivering in fear and then she came out smiling saying the officers have promised the Ikhwani will be reined.”

Then, movement of politicians was an ordinary affair – no long cavalcades, not many escorts, no jammers and no cell phones. “One day while she sent me home in her gypsy with her PSO, I was stopped by BSF in Karan Nagar, they disarmed the cop saying he was a militant and took both of us in custody and till past midnight we could barely convince the BSF that we were what we were,” Qayoom says. “That was Srinagar, and one could only imagine what might have been the situation in the periphery.”

Then, mourning halls were the venues and human rights were the only issue. Condolence was the only talk. Father-daughter would interact with people, see if there was something that needed their intervention and usually it was the local security camp or the SOG. “Unlike her father, Ms Mufti would get emotional seeing the tragedies,” Qayoom said, “I remember in Shopian where three 90-year-old were killed mysteriously, she broke down at one place.” Usually, she would return home distressing.

These contacts helped Ms Mufti get elected from Bijbehara in 1996. Soon, her father won south Kashmir Lok Sabha constituency in March 1998, a position, he held for a year.

Situation changed dramatically after Muftis’ resigned from Congress and floated PDP. All of a sudden, cavalcades became respectable as public gatherings became better and receptive. The 1999 Lok Sabha polls were perhaps PDP’s major mass contact programme. It didn’t win any seat but got a wide introduction.

Mehbooba’s campaign was aptly covered by Aunuhita Mujumdar, then with The Statesman. She was “cashing in on the feeling of alienation simply by dint of being there on the spot to offer her sympathies,” Mujumdar wrote in September 1999. “She has converted into votes the anti-government sentiment that the Hurriyat seeks to convert into a poll boycott.”

Her mass argument was simple: “When you are not cured by one doctor do not you go to another. So why do not you change the party? Try a new shop. Your problems will be solved. It is 50 years now. Give us a chance.”

Her gender was her advantage. In conflict, women are the principal suffers, and Ms Mehbooba could relate with them better. “This occupation has made us very strong as well. The mother has lost her son. The sister has lost her brother, so I think it has made us strong,” Mehbooba told al-Jazeera. “I can feel the pain and think that’s where you connect with each other and that’s where women were able to connect with me because of their pain and we could relate to each other.”

Mehbooba left no spot to grieve and was perhaps the only unionist who managed reaching Gool in 2013 to celebrate the birth of orphan (in pic) whose father was killed only days before.

A strong anti-NC incumbency and party’s staunch pro-people stand fetched PDP 17 berths in 2002 and power knocked at their door.

“I would call them the Doubles like Sarena Williams and Sania Mirza, complementing each other and really not mattering if single,” a PDP insider said. “Mufti Sahab with strong Indian credentials knew how to govern better and Mehbooba Ji strongly pro-people and soft separatist evolved into the best hand to stay connected with ground zero.” As he created the new milestones in governance, she was there to market it. That helped PDP to get cadres and an instant acceptability as an alternative to grand old NC. Amarnath Land row in 2008 led PDP to leave the alliance and Ms Mufti was the major decision-maker.

Six years of NC-Congress (2008-14) rule defined Ms Mufti as an opposition leader. On AFSPA, she created a situation that governor N N Vohra could not complete his speech to the joint session of legislature (February 25, 2008). On July 29, 2009, she led her party to accuse Omar of being part of the 2006 sleaze racket forcing him to resign till Raj Bhawan certified his innocence. In 2009, she used the twin Shopian “murders” to ensure Omar government did not get any benefit of doubt.

During 2010 unrest, Ms Mufti was literally on tenterhooks. “As we gather here today Kashmir is marooned in its own blood,” Ms Mufti told the All Party Meeting that then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh presided in Delhi on September 15, 2010. “We (J&K) are just a security enterprise and no more a people who could be owned by political worthies for this or that electoral calculation. A people fit only for a dole or a package and not a resolution of their problems on decent terms of engagement which would help them find their own development moorings in a world full of growth opportunities.”

For all these years, Ms Mufti conducted politics in such a way that she ensured Omar doesn’t do much. She contributed in keeping the governance on an auto-pilot mode. From the “assassination” of Haji Yousuf to the embezzlement in cricket association, she reduced the government to a mere reactionary institution. She left no spot to grieve and was perhaps the only unionist who managed reaching Gool in 2013 to celebrate the birth of orphan whose father was killed only days before.  Finally, September 2014 floods helped Ms Mufti more than anybody else.

But the rise of Mehbooba as a politician in a male-dominated, conflict-ridden spot was not without tensions. While leading her party to Shopian in 2009, she faced lampooning at the hands of local NC cadres. Even in the Martyrs’ Cemetery in Srinagar, on one July 13, an abusive assault on her was televised live – only to create a sympathy wave for her.

Making her father relevant to Kashmir…
Courtesy: Indian Express Archives

Despite NC alleging that PDP had tied-up with militants to immobilize some of its South Kashmir leaders, Ms Mehbooba had her own share of attacks. The first was a a devastating IED attack in Dachenpora belt when the father and daughter were campiagning for Abdul Rehman Veeri for the state assembly. Verri says that was in 1999. “Father and daughter were in a car and I was folowing in a Sumo,” Veeri said. “The blast was so massive that the engine of their car was destroyed but, thank God, they had a miraclous escape.” The second was a grenade attack in Tral. Then Shafat Sidiq, the news photographer washed away by 2014 floods, accompanied her.

On April 25, 2004, militants attacked her motorcade in Kulgam killing three persons as Mehbooba had a providential escape.

“The worst was the attack on her on April 08, 2004 in Uri,” remembers Bilal Bhadur of Kashmir Life, who accompanied her. Nine people were killed and 30 injured in that attack. “Ms Mufti was on top of a vehicle and many leaders were moving in a group when somebody lobbed a grenade and then followed by firing. They somehow ran into a shop and finding me alone on the road, she asked me to get in and then they downed the shutters.”

Mehbooba was elected to Lok Sabha twice in 2004 and 2014. But her Delhi stay, even her adversaries admit, failed to help her connect with the power corridors. “She was asked many times by people including her father that she must communicate and connect,” an insider said. “Her response suggested she feels suffocated in Delhi and the culture that fetches social contacts of the powerful passes through area she does not like.” Ms Mufti hates partying.

Unlike her father, Ms Mufti is socially entrenched in Kashmir. She invites her relatives and visits them. That is perhaps why, many people believe that in case of her ascend to power, the four people who would influence her are all from the family – Mrs Andrabi (her aunt), Sartaj Madni (her uncle), Sajad Mufti (the forester whom her father inducted into the party) and, most importantly her elder daughter.

Ms Mufti is so entrenched in local culture that the power hasn’t changed her. She still invites relatives and party men to a dinner when the family cooks pachi or have a gad-e-baet, rice with fish. “Every time, she would invite us (party leaders) for tea, I know it is the peculiar Presidential tea,” says one party leader. “It uses to be salt tea with pre-mixed Sattu (roasted maize flour) and a Kulcha.” She is an early dining person and loves MacDonald’s Fish Fillets. Unlike her father, she dislikes Wazwaan.

Street shopping at Janpath has remained her Delhi routine. But she has a huge Abhaya wardrobe. Ms Mufti has never been in public in J&K with her signature Abhaya. Once in hurry, she forgot her stole at home to be discovered by somebody who picked it and rushed out. When Ms Mufti asked the person for being in such a hurry, apt came the response: “Madam, you had forgotten Mehbooba Mufti at home!”

A practicing Muslim, who prays and observes fasting, Ms Mufti believes in enduring relationships. She nominated her friend Anjum Fazili to assembly and spends most of her spare time with Gulzara Ji, her Peer. After an Umrah earlier, she performed Haj as head of India’s official Haj delegation in 2014 but continues to be a frequent shrine-goer.

Ms Mehbooba declared Rs 47 lakh assets in the last elections and has a case pending against her that NCs Ali M Sagar filed.

But what defines Ms Mehbooba as a person is being “her father’s daughter”. People knowing Muftis’ see Ms Mufti as the “only man” in the family. “She was the only person who knew exactly what Mufti needed and when,” one insider said. “She only would know which cup of tea suits his tastes.”

For all the days Mufti was in AIIMS, Ms Mufti has stayed just a night away in Jammu. Before that she single-handedly managed her mother who had undergone knee surgery.

“To be honest, she was in politics just to please her father,” one PDP leader who knew the family for long said. “She had her view almost on all issues that confronted the party but would never go against her father’s decision.” She had meekly resisted a number of entries into her party but finally accepted her father’s decision. In certain cases, she cried to protest but surrendered at the end. She thought her father to be sort of a ‘political darvesh’ who had the premonition. Sometimes an angry Ms Mufti would tell party ministers “not to mislead him”.

One key decision she was unhappy with was PDP’s alliance with BJP. But she couldn’t stop her father who was lured by the big picture and decided to go against the wind. As she followed her father in their alliance, she was aware of every single development that was taking place. With father not around, this is the issue that will now define Ms Mufti.

Ms Mufti has remained bitter over the ‘raw deal’ meted out to PDP. Insiders said this was one subject that would be part of routine evening talk at Fairview. Unlike her father, she would get restive over the judicial adventurism of right wing party on sensitive issues concerning Kashmir. “She knew the costs because she is aware of the pulse of the people on ground,” one party insider said.

This bitterness was at play when Arun Jaitely drove to ask about Mufti’s welfare in AIIMS. She talked loudly about how her father was wronged in response to the “sacrifice”. That was perhaps the reason why Jaitely signed the Rs 1200 crore flood relief file on january 4, that was pending decesion for along time. Home Minister Raj Nath Singh who flew with Mufti’s coffin repeatedly told Ms Mufti that he doesn’t make a distinction between her and his daughter. Later when Ram Madhav met her in Srinagar for around an hour, various such issues cropped up. Her stand was simple: BJP was free to go wherever it wanted, if it wished so. She was bitter over the Prime Minister not findig time to even ask the welfare of her father in AIIMS, barely a five minute drive from his 7 Race Course Residence. Rajnath Singh is reported to have rang-up Madhav four times during the meeting suggesting him not to offend Ms Mufti, anyway. This led Nitin Gadkari to insist that Delhi will do everything to realize Mufti’s Kashmir dreams. Delhi flew Union Finance Secretary to meet Mehbooba and take note of the pending issues.

As N N Vohra is ruling the state, PDP initially made it public that it is keen to see its gains and losses on account of Agenda of Alliance in last nine months before moving ahead. PDP is restive over being ditched, at the last moment, on making return of two power projects not part of the so-called Rs 80,000 crore package. Delhi, they say, stayed highly conservative in helping Kashmir’s flood-decimated economy. As Omar Abdullah attacked the new posturing, a top PDP leader said the nine months of Mufti led government were packed with fundamental reforms that will start showing now.

But when Ms Mufti finally had an intercation with her party for five hours on January 17, she made everything clear. She said she is committed to what her father had decided – on alliance with BJP, because it is aimed at changing teh course of history in the subcontinant. She insisted that the Agenda of Alliance was inked after a hard negotiation and she would never try to bargain “even if she is consumed” (politically). Her only plea was that given the vision of her father and PDP founder, she would take her time to see if she could deliver after she succeeds her father as the next chief minister of the state. This was in response to her party leaders suggesting her to lead them.

As Ms Mufti emerges the final decision-maker in PDP, perhaps for the first time in her two decades of political career, the challenges for her are enormous. Firstly, the party exists in factions: empowered versus disempowered; MLAs versus MPs; proletariat versus bourgeoisie and pro-BJP versus anti-BJP. Secondly, the issue of party leadership will be a family versus party debate. And finally, reviewing the alliance performance is complex because it may involve questioning political wisdom of its founder.

Ideally, exiting from the alliance will help it restore its moral high ground and somehow cease the slide it has started witnessing starkly for last 10 days. But will snapping of alliance force a new election and a possible victory? If it could barely manage 28 berths at the peak of historic anti-NC wave in 2014, will the party improve its tally with a rightwing baggage? Fall of the alliance entails massive costs for BJP in Jammu and it will be an advantage to Congress.

There is a probability that PDPs key concerns on the Agenda of Alliance might be addressed at the highest level.

By the time, Ms Mufti has started addressing the party. She has already got Beig back but efforts on ‘king-slayer’ Tariq Hameed Karra froze when he resorted to his anti-BJP diatribe after mourning at Fairview for four days.

If situation finally encourages Ms Mufti to takeover as is expected, she would be a different person in the civil secretariat. Style may change but not the substance, one PDP leader predicted insisting she appears, but isn’t, a conventional. Expected to be populist, she may prefer Mir Qasim over Bakhshi. She would be stubborn but would still have compassion, be courteous and respectful to her colleagues. One leader said she carries a woman’s heart and will not be a “cold-blooded politician” but would sound “introvert at times”. Unlike Mufti, she would restrict herself to the welfare of J&K without excluding the ‘external dimension’. Normally a gossip-lover, party leaders say, she would listen to all but would eventually take her own decision.

Analysts believe for most of her career in power, she will have a razor edge walk to balance her right wing baggage in Kashmir and the soft-separatist image in Delhi and Jammu.

(Contents were slightly modified in wake of the new developments that have taken place since this report appeared in print on January 16, 2016.)

As a proud Dogra from Jammu’s backward village, Bhim Singh rose to become a prominent political, legal personality of J&K and managed to set hundreds of jail birds free. But the man who took the ‘peace mission’ to over 100 nations failed to show an olive branch in Kashmir, reports Bilal Handoo

Prof Bhim Singh

Hours before 1965 Indo-Pak war was declared over, four war prisoners were brought handcuffed to Jammu. Bagga Khan, Alam Sabbir, Sakhi Muhammad and Syed Muhammad from Pakistan-administrated Kashmir were detained in Poonch sector during an attempt by Pakistani army to land paratroopers there. The prisoners expected a brief jail stint, but ended up spending almost their lives in different Jammu jails before an advocate in 2012 pled their cases — not before 46 years had passed by.

Their pleader was the person playing many roles—politician, globetrotter, peace activist, scribe, and an advocate. The man was Bhim Singh, who filed a petition in Supreme Court on affidavits filed by their close relatives. Later the apex court issued notice to both Delhi and Srinagar rulers asking them to produce these war prisoners before the court. Singh ended up doing unthinkable – raising hopes in the hopeless.

But Singh’s sensational courtroom volunteerism didn’t start or end there. At fag-end of 2015, he shot a letter to President Pranap Mukherjee asking him to release and deport 40-year-old Russian lady, Bonetekia Zoia, detained in Srinagar jail. “Your Excellency,” Singh wrote, “please ensure deportation of the Russian lady, detained on August 24, 2015 from a tourist resort at Sonamarg… I understand that this case deserves intervention of the President of India on humanitarian grounds besides other legal and technical grounds.”

The lady was charged under section 14 of ‘Jammu and Kashmir’, Foreigners Act – for not having a passport, visa. Singh contested the charges arguing, there exists no J&K Foreigners Act. The charge framed by state government is highly objectionable, he concluded. “Her trial is vitiated, having no constitutional basis to uphold her conviction.” Only Singh could make such dramatic disclosures in the case—thereby, triggering judicial hopes for the lady.

But that’s something—pleading for justice, Singh, 79, has been doing throughout his 55-year-old public life. He is mostly known for his pleading for prisoners detained improperly, illegally or unconstitutionally in many Indian jails.

Singh is the descendant of Zorawar Singh—the legendary army general of Gulab Singh who “conquered Ladakh”. He was born in August 1937 at Ramnagar’s Bhugterian (backward) village.

As a student in 1953, Singh left then PM Sheikh Abdullah red-faced inside his school in Ramnagar. Singh, then Class 6 student, threw a Ladoo on Abdullah’s face during sweet distribution and ended up facing the first prison of his life. Behind his rage was a simmering sense running deep in his landlord family against Abdullah’s land reforms, costing them dear. This was the reason, he says, his father— a Second World War-II veteran—was seen rallying behind anti-Abdullah Praja Parishad movement in Jammu those days with Prem Nath Dogra.

Later Singh grew more as a political activist than student. Before graduating in Science from J&K University in 1963, he faced frequent jails (total 54 jail terms so far) for leading student agitation for opening a separate university in Jammu. During that period, he was almost shot dead once when a senior superintendent of police pulled a trigger at a students’ march in Jammu’s Kanak Mandi. “Actually, the superintendent had aimed for me,” he says, “but MP Khosla, who later became J&K’s chief secretary, intervened and saved my life.”

Later Singh went to Delhi appealing PM Indira Gandhi who set up an inquiry into the matter headed by Pranab Mukherjee. The enquiry indicted several police officials for the student killings during the agitation. By 1969, Jammu University was established.

Though he passed most of his exams behind the bars, Singh had his LL.B from Aligarh Muslim University in 1966 before completing his LL.M from London University with specialisation in Constitutional and International Law. He was later conferred doctorate in International Law by a Palestinian University.

Prof Singh during pro-Arafat march.

Singh soon left India on his global “peace mission”. He managed to visit over 120 countries. In 1970, he was the first person to cross the Sahara Desert on motorcycle. As word of his “peace mission” spread, he received a rousing reception in many countries. In Chile he was personally received by its then President Salvador Allende. In Middle East, he met Yasser Arafat and shortly became his vocal supporter.

Singh, head of Indo-Palestine Friendship Society, travelled to Syria in support of Arafat in 1973. He joined Arafat-led PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) over the dispute of Golan Heights between Israel and Syria (during the Yom Kippur War). His friendship with the leader of Fatah continued till Arafat’s death on November 11, 2004.

By 1973, Singh was appointed by Indira Gandhi as J&K youth Congress head. He eventually rose to become Congress’ general secretary. But the moment Sheikh Abdullah became J&K’s CM, Singh headed Poonch agitation and became the first politician to be booked under Public Safety Act. He was detained in Srinagar’s Central Jail in 1978, where –“for speaking out against Sheikh Abdullah”, he was almost “poisoned” to death.

Singh shortly left Congress to found his own political party, J&K National Panther’s Party (JKNPP). Being a two-time state lawmaker, Singh also contested for union berth seven times, fighting poll battles with Congress’ Rajiv Gandhi (in Amethi) and BJP’s LK Advani (in New Delhi).

One of the major highlights of his political career came on August 17, 1985 when he was suspended from J&K assembly. As he took the matter to J&K High Court, he landed in prison. During his detention, he says, several attempts were made on his life by state agencies, police. Then, his wife got involved, who took the issue back to courtroom. What ensued not only proved Singh innocent, but also became Supreme Court’s landmark judgement. Later he walked out of jail with a fractured leg.

By 1988, Singh was sitting on hunger strike against “poll rigging preventing him from joining Indian Parliament” in front of the election commission offices. He was joined by Atal Behari Vajpayee. Finally, J&K High Court ruled in his favour, stating that he did win the Lok Sabha by-election from Udhampur—a seat once held by his fellow Dogra clansman Dr Karan Singh.

But more than a politician, Singh created a name as a lawyer. By aiding thousands of helpless prisoners, farmers and youth across the border, Singh won many landmark cases in Supreme Court of India. Most of these cases were won through writs. He secured release of several foreign prisoners—some of whom had been held in Indian jails for decades. For his dogged advocacy, Chief Justice PN Bhagwati (17th Chief Justice of India from July 12, 1985 – December 20, 1986) described him “crusader for truth and justice”.

Singh initiated Public Interest Litigation (PIL) process in J&K against state’s “oppression” on the weaker sections. Besides providing free legal aid to inmates mostly languished in Punjab and J&K jails, he fought courtroom battles for several separatists including Syed Ali Geelani, Abdul Gani Lone, Shabir Shah and Abdul Gani Bhat, he says. But mostly, Singh attained distinction for releasing hundreds of Pak prisoners.

In 2014, he managed to release 15 Pak prisoners while seeking release of total 38 foreign prisoners in Indian jails. Among the detainees was an Iranian prisoner, Abdul Sharief, lodged in Amritsar Central Jail illegally since 1995. Based on his writ petition no.310/2005, SC bench passed highly revolutionary order, directing all the Sessions Judges to visit their nearest prisons to examine, record the plight of prisoners. “That order will benefit nearly four lakh prisoners (60% of whom belong to poor families) languished in different Indian jails,” Singh says. Among the prisoners, he says, 25 prisoners are mentally challenged (five of them, deaf and dumb) languishing in Amritsar jails for years.

Being a top member in Joint Defence Committee of India and Pakistan—the body looking after the cases of the Indian prisoners in Pakistan jails, Singh has already repatriated 450 Pakistani prisoners. He has also secured the release order of 150 Kashmiri prisoners, including Bita Karate.

Prof Singh received Katare’s letter in 1999. The letter came from Agra Jail, where Karate was detained under PSA. Singh hurriedly filed a writ petition on that Urdu letter, still safe in his possession. Subsequently, on Singh’s successive writs, SC ordered the Terrorist and Disruption Activities Prevention Act (TADA) court to release Karate in 2006. The judgement apparently cut a villainous figure out of Singh in displeased pandit community.

For his role in prisoners’ release, Singh was honoured by Pakistan Supreme Court Bar association in summer 2014. But his courtroom battles are still far from over in the face of “countless illegal youth detentions”. Lately, he asserts, he is being made target for his Supreme Court sensational stints. In 2015, when Modi government threw him out of Delhi’s VP House after 23 years, the disgruntled Singh termed it a politically motivated punitive action for his fight for the civil rights of Pakistani prisoners.

Saddam Hussein

His legal fights apart, Singh’s media image is equally well-known. Since 1975, he has been running news weekly besides contributing write-ups to many Delhi-based and global publications. Singh has also made films on The Gulf War, Palestine, Jerusalem, Return of Doda Migrants, Babri-Masjid, and many other topics. He also has many high-profile interviews to his name, including that of Dr Boutros Boutros Ghali (UN Secretary General), Yasir Arafat, Elias Harawi, Benjamin Netanyahu, Indira Gandhi, Abdul Gafar Khan and Saddam Hussein.

When US imprisoned Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president named Singh to plead his case, he says. “However the America blocked me from travelling to Baghdad.” In 2006, at a UNI press conference, the simmering Singh almost sounded prophetic: “a dead Saddam can be more dangerous than a living Saddam for the US and UK… the execution may take a moment. But its consequences will be dangerous and long-term.”

Earlier Singh was engaged by former Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic in UN criminal court in The Hague. “But,” he says, “I wasn’t allowed to argue in the court.” And when Supreme Court of Pakistan (on April 26, 2012) ousted then Pak PM Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, Singh shot a letter to Pakistan, offering him free legal aid. He also challenged “illegal, improper, constitutional and mala-fide detention of Anna Hazare and his team” in SC in recent past.

In 2007, Singh — who terms the last Dogra Maharaj Hari Singh as “saviour of Identity of J&K”, did unthinkable by staying KAS list in SC. The move badly irked then BJP leader Ashok Khajuria, who blurted, “For the first time the Jammu candidates dominated the list of selected KAS candidates (97 of the 132 KAS positions), but Singh…”

But his activism and advocacy aside, his political beliefs have always failed him to win audience in Kashmir—even after describing NC, Congress as Kashmiris’ “tormentors” (besides “Karbala ke katil”). Singh’s decadal lobbyism for an amendment to Article 370 for integrating J&K to India makes him a ‘loathsome figure’ in valley. His advocacy for J&K’s tri-partition and Dogra Raj for Jammu further make him ‘fiend’ than ‘friend’ to Kashmir.

But that hardly ever stopped him playing “behind the curtain roles”, many reckon. Possibly, the same sense surfaced during his recent book launch where former Home Sectary, K Padmanabhaiah, recalled Singh’s contributions to “reinstate the democratic process” in Kashmir during 1996 assembly elections after a gap of nine years. Perhaps the assertion accidently tumbled skeletons from Singh’s political cupboard.

With this ‘dubious image’—as he stepped inside Srinagar’s Partap Park in 2015 fall to show solidarity with those whose sons are nowhere to be seen, he only managed to stir up a temperamental storm for himself. He shortly walked out of the battered park quietly, perhaps realising the worth of his K-stand.

After successfully launching an architecture firm in US, this Sher-e-Khas girl dreams to change the landscape back home. Ubeer Naqushbandi reports her journey

As a kid Asma Jeelani would get fascinated by sketches and small lines drawn by her architect father. As she grew up, the childhood fascination turned into passion. “I too wanted to become an architect,” says Asma, who is in her late thirties.

By the time Asma completed her schooling, her mother, a doctor, had already decided her future. Even her “dear dad”, was hesitant to let Asma follow his footsteps. Reason. Architecture as a career is not meant for girls. But Asam had already made up her mind. She wanted to design big cities, something her father has done during his hay-days as architect. To her father’s credit are landmark buildings like Sehanshah Hotel, Pari Mahal Hotel, M A Ramzana clusters, Welcome Hotel etc.

“Finally after convincing my parents I was allowed to pursue my dream,” says Asma.

The next stop for Asma was Sir J J College of Architecture, Mumbai. After completing her course in 1996, Asma did her internship in Delhi and Mumbai for two years before coming back to Kashmir.  By the time she came back, her father had already established architectural firm: Jeelani Assoicates. “I cam back at the right time, as my father needed somebody to shoulder the responsibility,” says Asma.

Asma’s first project in Kashmir was the renovation of famed Gulmarg Golf Course. After completion the project was inaugurated by then PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee. “This helped me make my name in the industry to a great extent,” says Asma.

Despite her desire to continue her work in Kashmir, Asma, after working for just two years, had to abandon her plans. Reason: corrupt system in place.

The next stop for Asma was America: the land of opportunities and appreciations. “My first job was at Kemmij Associates, then I moved on to other firms before launching Jeelani Associates in America and Kuwait,” says Asma.

But running an architect firm in America was entirely different from what she has learned in Kashmir. “It needed an entirely different approach, a professional one,” says Asma.

With specialization in urban designing Asma was entrusted to design Microsoft campus, Red Mann in Washington, and one of the offices for business tycoon Bill Gates.

In 2007, Asma came back to Kashmir because of her father’s demise. It was during this period Asma found Kashmir’s infrastructure has changed a lot. “I was surprised to see tall asymmetrical building towering over Srinagar’s landscape,” remembers Asma.

The more she moved around; the extent of haphazard construction, ill planned residential colonies, shopping complexes, and government building, appalled her. “Srinagar had expanded without any thought or plan. This was heartbreaking,” recalls Asma.

Asma was troubled to see how people are using construction materials that do not sync with Kashmir’s unique climate and geography. “It was completely against the basics of architecture and nature,” says Asma. “Entire landscape was alien to Kashmir’s unique identity.”

But the most painful moment for Asma came during her daylong Sonmarg trip. “There were hundreds of huts build right inside the greenery, without planning or care for the environment and aesthetics,” says Asma. “In America, development often is done in accordance with the nature. But here, nature is the first casualty.”

The next shock was when Asma visited interiors of Sher-e-Khas where she grew up. “With proper preservation and thought we could have turned Sher-e-Khas into a major tourist attraction. But nobody seems to care,” says Asma, who hails of Narwara in Sher-e-Khas.

Asma feels the so-called modern architecture that is in vogue in Kashmir now, fails to complement the overall scenic beauty of the place. “The indigenous architecture of Kashmir had a mix of wood and mud which is not only climate friendly but earthquake resistant too,” says Asma.

Since last two years Asma is working on a blue-print to give Sher-e-Khas a facelift. “I want to restore it back to its original glory,” says Asma, who is also co-authoring a book titled: History of Kashmiri Architecture. She is also working on a traffic management plan that will ease the vehicular mess in Srinagar, especially Sher-e-Khas. “There is no point of modernization if we do it at the cost of our heritage.”

He is a plumber, hairdresser, painter, professional cook, mehandi artist, sports man and a carpenter. Meet Bilal Ahmad Ganaie, who multi-tasks to help his family of seven to get out of penury. Saima Rashid tells his story

Born in a small village called Larkipora in Awantipora, Bilal Ahmad Ganaie, 27, is master of all trades, quite literally.

Eldest in the family of seven – two brother, two sisters, and his aged parents – Bilal does a little bit of everything to keep the hearth and hope burning. He starts his day as a plumber fixing tabs and erratic water connection in his village. By noon, he is a carpenter, busy making sofa and chairs. By evening he dons a Wazaa (traditional cook) dress and works through the night at local weddings. And if luck is on his side, he is called to apply mehandi (Hina) on bride’s hands. He is a born artist. However, if he is cooking at the bridegroom’s house, he can slip into a hairdresser’s role without any problem.

Bilal, who completed his bachelor’s in physical education from Amravati University in Mahrashtra in 2012, started working when he was just fourteen. “My father’s illness forced me to shoulder family’s responsibilities,” says Bilal.

While in Maharashtra, Bilal supported his studies, and his family back home, by doing odd jobs in his spare time.

Back home, during summer vacations, Bilal would work as labourer on construction sites to earn for the family.

“Those were tough times for me, I had to manage my expenses as well as my families,” says Bilal. “You can say I never had childhood in real sense.”

But multi-tasking, multi-talented Bilal’s first love is sport. So far Bilal has participated in national level Kho-Kho, volleyball and badminton championships, apart from being an ace runner and a swimmer. “I wanted to be a sportsperson,” says Bilal, who has also won medals in cricket during his school days.

Bilal feels circumstances never permitted him to express himself; that is why he began to paint his “silent emotions”.

During an inter-district competition, Bilal made a sketch of Dr Sir Mohammad Iqbal, leaving everybody speechless and full of praises. “When I paint, I try to give life to my paintings. My main focus is on eyes. It is our eyes that differentiate people from each other. Only a perfect pair of eyes can make a painting lively,” believes Bilal. “I usually finish a painting in a couple of hours.”

Bilal, a topper at Amravati University is hunting for a job unsuccessfully since he completed his studies. “I applied for the post of physical education teacher and topped the recruitment exams,” says Bilal, “But despite that I am jobless.”

Bilal has to constantly choose between his passion and responsibilities. “I left sports because I had to get my sister married. In order to do that I opted not to pursue my masters and rather work,” says Bilal.

Then Bilal gave up his studies so that his younger brothers can continue with theirs. “Somebody has to earn for the family. If all of us study then who will feed the family,” says Bilal.

Despite being the eldest in the family, Bilal plans to educate his siblings, and marry them, before thinking of settling down.

“I work at dozens places in a day doing different jobs just to see my family happy,” says Bilal.

Unlike other youth, Bilal says he cannot wait endlessly for a government job. “Till it happens, or if at all it happens, I have to keep the show going,” says Bilal. “I cannot wait forever with a degree in my hand.”

With next wedding season just round the corner Bilal is busy learning new mehandi designs, and a few recipes to stay relevant in the competition.

Can a mother abandon herself and compensate the loss of her son by singing, writing elegies. There is one from restive Maisuma, who has been weaving verses since 2010 when her only son fell to the bullets, reports Marila Latif

Shahzada-Rafiq

In her frail voice, she keeps humming odes to her son all days and all nights. Almost six years have passed, but the mother’s woe refuses to wane. Turbulence dawned six years ago when her son, her only son fell to the bullets. And since then, the 60-year-old mother has been compensating her loss by singing, writing elegies.

For Shahzada Rafiq, even time has proved treacherous, as it couldn’t help her to move on in life and assuage her sorrow.

The sorrow befell in simmering summer of 2010, when forces were piling up bodies of ‘young and restless’ across Kashmir. Amid bloodbath, Shahzada’s 28-year-old son, Yasir Rafiq, took a day off from restive curfews and came out to play carom on a roadside with his friends in restive Maisuma.

For the day, the area known for its signature anti-establishment dissent appeared calm. But the uneasy calm shattered shortly when youth and forces got engaged in a fierce clash. To contain the dissent, forces opened fire. One bullet hit Yasir, injuring him critically. A few days later, Yasir, the young businessman, succumbed.

In her Maisuma home, Shahzada is repeatedly persisting that her son wasn’t part of protest that day, but “an innocent who was brutally killed without any reason”.

The day her son succumbed, she fainted only to regain her senses completely, three months later. But caught between her inconsolable motherhood and worldly affairs, she soon found salvation in poetry.

“I never thought that I would be able to write for my martyr son,” says Shahzada, sobbingly. “But then I thought it is a best possible way to keep him alive, forever.”

She weaves her verses in chaste Kashmiri. Her poetry talks about a mother’s deep sense of loss and longing for her son. Shahzada, however, never craves for justice through her verses because, she says, every Kashmiri knows the end result.

Though her verses are too personal to her, but her elegies appear representation of many mothers who kept singing elegies in memory of their sons.

“Writing verses for expressing grief and sorrow is the best way to budge away depression,” says Hamidullah Shah, a noted psychologist. “Shahzada’s poetry is her panacea – as it helps her to reduce suicidal tendencies and other mental agonies.”

In some of her verses, she invokes neighbours for an impossible reunion with her son: Neighbours are searching for you, oh my dear; they are stabbing from their windows for you, oh my dear…

Shahzada is being looked after by her only daughter, Saima Rafiq. While simplifying the complex of her mother’s condition, Saima says her brother’s death not only doomed her family, but badly freaked her mother.

“I began noticing subtle changes in my mother’s behaviour soon after my brother’s death. I thought, maybe, things will be fine after some time. But I was wrong. Till today, my mother wails and wakes up during nights, complaining a strange pain in her heart. She then leaves her bed and begins singing, writing elegies while crying her heart out.”

Amid Shahzada’s relentless woe, Saima doesn’t remember the last time when her mother cooked food. “All the time,” Saima says, “Mama locks herself in home. Those killers didn’t only kill my brother, they killed my mother, too.”

Meanwhile, the mother sings: Loali chanai sham goumai, yaar goumai gindnai (Your reminiscence conferred nightfall on me, my beloved went to play…)

He literally kept Jama’at-e-Islami alive after its entire leadership was jailed post-1987 state assembly results. Mohammad Raafi talks to Mohammad Ashraf Khan  to know his side of Jama’at story

Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai

In November 1986 Mohammad Ashraf Khan, alias Sehrai, was released from Central Jail Jammu after serving one year detention under Public Safety Act (PSA) for “talking about freedom of Kashmir”.

By then, the ground situation in the valley had changed completely as Muslim United Front (MUF) was formed. When 1987 elections were announced, Sehrai was at his home in Kupwara. Sehrai and (Syed Ali) Geelani’s release was part of “goodwill gesture” after Rajiv-Farooq accord paved way for elections. “I was kept in Jammu jail on G M Shah’s (then CM of Kashmir) insistence, as he knew keeping me and Geelani in the same jail meant trouble,” recalls Sehrai, now secretary general of Geelani led Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (The duo formed TeH after an agreement with Jama’at-e-Islami in 2004). “He (Shah) feared that Geelani and I discuss politics and plan things when together,” recalls Sehrai. Geelani was lodged in Srinagar jail because he was a heart patient.

A day before Sehrai and Geelani’s release, Abdul Gani Lone (People’s Conference) was also set free.

“When MUF decided to fight elections. I along with Geelani sahab objected. But, G M Bhat, the then Ameer-e-Jama’at compelled us to fight on disciplinary grounds,” claims Sehrai.

Syed Ali Geelani

Meanwhile, Lone approached MUF and he was granted entry. “Lone sought Kupwara, Bandipora, Baramulla and Rafiabad seats,” says Sehrai, who was to contest from Kupwara assembly seat. “The leadership approached me and told me about Lone’s demand, and I readily agreed to withdraw my candidature,” he says, “It was not an issue for me.”

However, Sehrai claims, Ameer-e-Jama’at (GM) Bhat’s close friend, a fruit merchant named Abdul Majid Bhat was fighting from Rafiabad on MUF ticket. “Thus Bhat didn’t agree to Lone’s demand,” claims Sehrai. Bhat’s refusal to accept Lone’s demand resulted in rift between PC and MUF. “That is why Bhat expelled Lone from MUF,” says Sehrai. Later Lone’s PC fought elections independent of MUF.

Analysts believe Lone’s expulsion from MUF became major reason for its failure in North Kashmir. “Had PC been the part of MUF we could have defeated NC comfortably in north,” believes Sehrai.

While it is debatable how many seats MUF would have won if elections would have been free and fair, Sehrai believes they had potential to emerge as a “strong opposition”. “We could have bagged around 20 seats comfortably,” claims Sehrai. “Widespread rigging and state’s highhandedness decimated MUF.”

Sehrai alleges that when results were declared Muhammad Yousuf Shah, now Salahuddin, got what was actually bagged by Mohiuddin Shah (NC). “Yousuf Shah was declared runner up instead of being winner,” claims Sehrai.

During campaigning, Sehrai, who was known for his oratory skills, enjoyed huge public support. He quotes a Kashmir Times (KT) poll dairy about his constituency to make his point. “KT had praised my oratory skills and mentioned how people used to come in thousands to listen to my speeches,” says Sehrai.

Gh Muhammad Bhat (fifth from right) addressing press in Srinagar after returning as Ameer-e-Jama’at-e-Islami in 2015. (KL file Image: Bilal Bahadur)

Sehrai recalls how once a Jama’at member told him that an IB officer in-charge of elections in Kupwara told him: “Badi takreerain karta hai (He is a good orator). But one thing is clear, Qoam dushman ko hum kabi apne aiwaan mai aane nahi denge (we will never let an anti-national enter our assembly).”

Sehrai style of campaigning was different from other MUF contestants.  “I would first discuss Islam and politics, and then Kashmir issue. Then I would respond to the mud-slinging of the opposition leaders,” recalls Sehrai. “Hum Islami nukt-e-nazar pesh karte thay (we would present Islamic point of view). We never made fake promises.”

Sehrai would tell people, if he won, he will ensure a corruption free system, and work for development of people irrespective of their political ideology. “The largest gathering I addressed was in Kupwara main Chowk, attended by almost 30 thousand people,” claims Sehrai.

During the course of campaigning, Lone resorted to baseless propaganda, says Sehrai. “Earlier Lone approached me with an offer to fight elections on PC ticket. He offered me Rs 50 thousand and a house, and everything I needed to fight election,” claims Sehrai, “I rejected.” “Even NC had approached me with the same offer.”

Immediately after the results were declared, MUF leaders, including Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, Maulana Abbas Ansari, G M Bhat and others were arrested.  “This led to leadership crisis in Jama’at,” recalls Sehrai who was in Kupwara that time. The next day after the results were declared, Geelani, who was declared winner from Sopore, along with Hissamuddin Banday, paid Sehrai a visit. “They asked me come to Srinagar.” Sehrai had lost from Kupwara seat.

In a few days, when Sehrai reached Jama’at’s office in Batmaloo, he found it locked down. “It was occupied by BSF men. Nobody was allowed to enter the building.”

Disturbed by the changed situation, Sehrai, along with Geelani met other Jama’at men at Ghulam Nabi Nowshehri’s house in Zoonimar. Nowshehri, a Jama’at member, too was arrested. “There, Geelani was unanimously elected as acting Ameer-e-Jama’at and I was elected Secretary General.”

After the meeting was over, Sehrai and Geelani along with Hissamuddin Banday decided to meet P S Gill, then SSP Srinagar. “We wanted to bring into his notice the closure of Jama’at office.”

P S Gill

Gill told them that Jama’at office was sealed because of reports that “there are weapons stored inside”. The confusion was because of Aijaz Dar, Muhammad Yousuf Shah’s bodyguard, who carried a licensed gun during campaigning.

Finally,  after 15 days Jama’at office was reopened and it started working under Geelani and Sehrai.

Then, one Friday Geelani addressed a congregation in Sopore and demanded inquiry into the alleged bungling in the functioning of Anjuman Moin-ul-Islam-a trust managed by locals of Sopore. This led to a fight between NC and Jama’at workers. Geelani and other Jama’at workers were arrested and lodged in Baramulla jail.

Meanwhile, in Srinagar, Janta Party (JP) had sent a delegation to meet MUF leaders, mainly Qazi Nisar. “They told Nisar and other MUF leaders that they are aware about mass rigging in elections.  They had assured MUF to help dissolve the government and form an alliance.”

Already, there had been a series of meetings between MUF leaders and Janta Party representatives, he said.

Janta Party wanted all MUF constituents parties’ presidents and general secretaries to be present in the meeting. “Since Geelani was under arrest, I preferred not to go. Besides, I had inputs that something fishy is happening behind the scenes.”

Sehrai’s fears came true when MUF announced in a joint press conference in Srinagar. “I was informed over phone about the press conference by Movli Abbas Ansari.”

People’s Conference founder, Ab Gani Lone

In the press conference, “MUF leaders declared Accession of Kashmir with the union of India as final. MUF leaders stressed on need for development etc.,” recalls Sehrai, who didn’t attend the conference. “I was angry. I reacted by issuing a press-note stating Jama’at’s position. It was carried by all newspapers the next day.”

Sehrai’s response to MUF’s press conference was welcomed by Jama’at’s jailed leaders and sympathizers. “I was hailed by one and all for saving MUF’s face.”

Irked by Sehrai’s response, the next meet was scheduled at Islamabad. Sehrai didn’t go, instead directed Ameer-e-Zila Sheikh Ghulam Hassan to attend on his behalf.

Meanwhile, Farooq Abdullah ordered release of “moderate” political prisoners including G M Bhat of Jama’at. Around same time MUF expelled Jama’at from the party. “I was in Karnah when I came to know about  expulsion of Jama’at from MUF by Abbas Ansari.” Next day MUF was completely disintegrated.

After his release G M Bhat, the elected Ameer-e-Jama’at, headed straight to Jama’at office at Batamaloo where Sehrai was working alone during his absence. “He (Bhat) told me that I will leave for Sopore tomorrow to spend some time with his family.”

Bhat told Sehrai that he will be back in a few days to rejoin his duties as Ameer-e-Jama’at. But, to Sehrai’s surprise, next morning Bhat was back in Jama’at office. “He started shouting at me, as if I had taken his chair.” Sehrai, instead of saying anything directed Bhat to his office and left. “I went back to Kupwara.”

After one month, Bhat paid Sehrai a visit at his Kupwara home, asking him to rejoin the office. “It was childish on his part. I refused.”

After some months, Sehrai was elected as Ameer-e-Zila Kupwara.

After a few days, a meeting was called at Ghulam Nabi Sumji’s residence in Bijbehara. “Given the mass rigging and subsequent arrests, the discussion was whether MUF’s MLAs should attend assembly session or not.”

While some of the members were in favour of attending the assembly session, others opposed it without reservation. “But the majority was in favour of MUF attending the assembly. ”

MUF’s elected MLAs finally resigned in July 1989 except Abdul Razaq Mir (Bachru), after militancy started in Kashmir.

Dr Ghulam Qadir Wani

During Jama’at’s state wide convention of Arakeen (basic members) in Baramulla, G M Bhat, then Ameer-e-Jama’at, was openly criticized for “failing” both Tehreek (movement) and Tanzeem (party). Dr Ghulam Qadir Wani, the brain behind MUF, termed Bhat’s time “as depressing and discouraging for Jama’at”, remembers Sehrai.

In July 1988, Hakeem Ghulam Nabi, from Shopian, replaced Bhat as Ameer-e-Jama’at. Both Sehrai and Geelani became Shura (Advisory council) members. On August 15, 1988, Hakeem called Markazi Shura Ijlaas to elect new office bearers. “I wrote a letter to Hakeem Sahab telling him to take serious note of what had happened at Baramulla. I also told him that I don’t need any position in new setup.”

However, Sehrai was elected Secretary General of Jama’at by a majority vote. “I worked for 6 months as on this position.”

Maulana Abbas Ansari

Meanwhile, Rajiv Gandhi visited Pakistan to meet Benazir Bhutto, who in order to please her Indian counterpart got Kashmir related banners removed from Islamabad. “Rajiv told a dinner meet hosted by Benazir that Kashmir issue is solved as people came out in large numbers to vote recently (1987 J&K state elections). Benazir didn’t mention 1987 election rigging even once, infuriating people in Kashmir.”

Sehrai, as Secretary General of Jama’at, issued a presser criticising both Rajiv and Benazir. “This presser was widely carried by both local and international media.”

Sehrai had criticised Shimla Agreement terming it as a way to promote status quo, turning Line of Control into permanent border. “Infuriated, government ordered my arrest.”

Angered, Hakeem wrote a letter to Sehrai and asked him to back-off from his statement. And, in spring of 1989, Sehrai was jailed, again.

After he was barred from teaching in 1986, the disgruntled Prof Abdul Gani Bhat began lecturing on politics in a series of covert residential meetings which eventually led to the creation of MUF. Twenty-nine years later, the professor tells Bilal Handoo how the front started with bang and ended with whimper

Prof Abdul Gani Bhat

Number 23 has always fascinated me. On March 1, 1963—the day I was appointed as professor of Persian in Poonch Degree College—I saw 23 chairs vacant in Principal’s office in my dream. It took me years to realise that the dream essentially meant my 23 years of teaching service and the historic date of March 23, 1987.

1986 was my last year as professor. For someone who loved to take his students beyond the realms of Persian, the abrupt end was akin to devastation. But then, when nine of us were dismissed by state government headed by Jagmohan in backdrop of Babri Masjid and Jammu events, I realised that we were sacrificed to appease Delhi.

One might ask: Why I figured in that list of sacrificial goats? For that to understand, one has to know how my teachings were taken with a pinch of salt by state. I wasn’t organising protests, raising slogans or involved in other “anti-state” activities. I was only exercising academic freedom, which, I believe, is no sin.

But, yes, the decision didn’t go well with the state employees—especially among Muslims—who read it a big conspiracy against the majority. Already Jagmohan was telling us what to eat and how to eat. So, one fine day, we sat to counter the state highhandedness. Among the likeminded people was the great strategist of Kashmir, Dr Ghulam Qadir Wani.

After deliberations, we decided to float three forums: Muslim Employees Front (MEF), Muslim Students Front (MSF) and Muslim United Front (MUF). MEF was a huge change, interpreted as “communalisation of services” by state. But whatever it was for state, it was surely a prelude for us to start something big.

During the same time, Moulana Abbas Ansari, Qazi Nissar and others were talking about atrocities faced by Kashmiris. Since I was a known fiery debater, somehow these men showed interest in me. Later I came to know how Ghulam Rasool Bacha, heading MEF then, had once met Abbas Ansari’s secretary, Hakim Ghulam Rasool, at Amira Kadal bridge and proposed my name for inclusion of the talks.

Then, one day, I received a letter from Ansari through Hakim, inviting me to a meeting in Srinagar. I headed for it. It was a summer time of 1986. The meeting was taking place at Chattabal in Ansari’s follower’s house. I could see Jama’at-i-Islami, Jamiait Ahalhadees, Ummati Islami, Islamic Study Circle and members of other parties participating in it.

For the first time, I met Qazi Nissar there. When I was finally invited to talk, I told them that we should first have political umbrella in the form of the front. Besides, I told them, we should have an agenda and collective leadership.

Mind you, it was the first organised effort to seek political solution of Kashmir issue. Since we lacked a proper address then, therefore, I famously stated, “Har ghar hamara daftar hai.” (Every home is our office).

Next, we met at Khanyar, inside the house of Dr Ghulam Qadir Wani’s relative. Our second gathering had good attendance. Even Jama’at chief GM Bhat and other big shots were there. As I proposed the name Muslim Muthida Mahaz for our political front, Yousuf Shah, now Syed Salahuddin, cried in excitement: “Khudaye! Issha gaye Azaad!” (God! We have been liberated!). They had not been able to suggest a name for many days.

I stopped him saying, “Control, not yet!”

Later me, Dr Wani and Qazi Nissar formed a committee for drafting the Mahaz constitution. Till then, Jama’at wasn’t a party of the front.

Later to rope in Jama’at, Dr Qadir Wani invited me in a Jama’at congregation at his native village, Arin Bandipora. On his call, I announced that Jama’at was the part of MUF. Even Jama’at chief GM Bhat present there wasn’t aware about the development. We later persuaded him saying that MUF was only taking Jama’at’s ideology forward. This cleared decks for the Batingo date, a day after.

In Batingo Sopore, on July 13, 1986, we met next at my home to formally welcome Jama’at into MUF. That was the historic development because Jama’at was only religo-political party having pan-Kashmir presence then. We needed the party and its support base for making MUF a success. And shortly, Jama’at inclusion altered my earlier assertion—“har ghar hamara daftar hai”. Now, we had a permanent address at Maisuma.

Prof Abdul Gani Bhat along with other MUF members addressing Press in 1986.

We shortly met Press to formally announce MUF. To avoid state’s backlash, we exercised caution in our speeches. In between, Dr Farooq left for Hajj. Days later, one MUF member, Siraj ud Din, whispered in my ears: “Farooq will become J&K chief minister on his return.” That man proved right. No sooner Farooq returned, he was reinstalled as J&K CM. That man for certain assured source of his always proved right. Let me reveal it a bit later how his next whisper punctured our poll claims.

By December 1986, the date for election was announced. The poll battle was set on March 23, 1987. To create a roadmap, MUF met at Baramulla. Two polar opinions emerged in the meeting: one in favour of elections and other against it. Jama’at was clear. It wanted to contest the polls. Its representatives clearly announced: “If any of you want to boycott the polls, then do it. But we are going ahead.”

Then, I and Dr Wani decided that we should participate in polls strategically. So we announced, “Our motive behind contesting polls is to educate and involve people.” With that, MUF was all good to go on the poll journey.

I was eyeing 33 seats, if the poll process would be a fair exercise. In case of rigging, I thought, we would win three seats. And if somehow, the entire process takes middle route, then we would grab at least 11 seats.

It was then, Siraj ud Din, the one who whispered Farooq’s power resurrection to my ears, whispered again: “Rest assure, we are only getting four seats.” I knew, he was speaking as per the script. But then I thought, the man can’t be right every time. Even then, I couldn’t stop myself recalling his words on the day when the results indeed reduced MUF to four seats!

But well before the results, we were busy making MUF a grand success. During one of those days, I met Dr Qadir Wani to discuss a very significant plan. The plan was to dress MUF candidates in shroud to parade them in public for creating sympathy wave. After he understood the plan, we shortly left to meet Jama’at chief, GM Bhat to discuss the plan.

“But what are we going to achieve by resorting to such tactics?” the Ameer Jama’at asked. I replied that shroud is the symbol of sacrifice besides a statement that we are ready to sacrifice our lives for freedom’s sake. When the chief was convinced, he ordered shroud for MUF candidates. The original idea was to take these kafanposh to Dargah, but later we decided to unveil them before public inside crowded Iqbal Park.

Another interesting factor was the manner with which we were campaigning. We would tell people that, remember, March 23, 1940, was the day when the struggle for Pakistan’s creation began. “It was on this day the freedom lovers rallied behind Muhammad Ali Jinnah who vowed in Muslim League convention (Lahore) to struggle strenuously for the creation of Pakistan,” the people couldn’t stop themselves from sloganeering after hearing this. We would also tell them to divorce the old parties—NC and Congress—“as they only piled up Kashmir’s miseries”. And sometimes, we would tell them: Remember, if you won’t vote for us, we will let loose djinns in our command on you inside polling booth. All this was done in good faith: to make MUF success.

But the moment, Farooq Abdullah—doomed to lose—ran post-haste to Delhi, I knew scope for the fair elections had gone. He came back only to unleash hell. We despite winning the elections were declared losers and subsequently jailed.

On January 1, 1988, when I walked out of prison, I sensed that something was about to happen in valley. It didn’t take me much time to realise what it was.

While travelling in a local bus, one day, I saw the former MUF supporters already seated at back. They patted my shoulder and cued me to follow them. I was taken to some place where they showed me guns. “Now, guns will deal with the state,” I heard one of them thundering. Later, I could only walk out as an uneasy man, cursing both Farooq Abdullah and Delhi for pushing Kashmiri youth to extreme path.

Then, one fine day, when I was returning from Bhaderwah with Jama’at chief GM Bhat after attending a religious congregation there, the news came: MUF has been disintegrated. I could only rage up over the realisation how our beloved movement was buried under the debris of an unimaginative politics. Later I lost my hearing power and I could only express gratitude to God for saving me from lies!

However, all these years, Number 23 continued fascinating me. But then I could never forget what this date did to Kashmir on March 23, 1987.

A mathematician uses poetry to keep his slain brother’s memory alive. Ubeer Naqushbandi revisits the day when gunshots turned festivity into mourning in restive Bomai

Mohammad Sultan Tantray

Mohammad Sultan Tantray, an MSc mathematics who teaches at High School Bomai, Sopore, peeps out of the window of his two storey modest house. A chain smoker, he is lost in his thoughts, mumbling some couplets. He looks older than his age. He is in his late forties. Suddenly Sultan starts jotting down a few couplets in Urdu on paper.

His switch over from numbers to verses did not happen all of a sudden, it has roots in blood and pain.

Sultan vividly remembers the annual Urs of Tujjar Sharief located few kms from Bomai village. “It was February 21, 2009. I clearly remember,” says Sultan. There was festivity in air. People were out on the streets, visiting the shrine, praying etc.

After paying obeisance at the shrine people would visit their relatives to greet each other. “It is part of the local tradition,” says Sultan.

Before visiting the Shrine that day Sultan recalls he was at home sharing lighter moments with his younger brother Mohammad Amin Tantray, 21, whom he fondly called Bota. “That was the last time we were happy and together,” says Sultan.

In the evening Sultan went to his friends house to spend some leisure time there. A little while later, sound of gunshots outside alarmed everybody including Sultan. “I first thought it is firecrackers,” recalls Sultan who was proved wrong within next few minutes.

Suddenly an acquaintance came running to Sultan’s friend’s house and announced: Bota’as ha aav fire (Bota was shot).

“I didn’t ask him why or how and started running towards the market,” recalls Sultan.

Once there Sultan saw people taking his brother’s blood soaked body to the hospital. “He was already dead when I reached there,” recalls Sultan painfully.

Soon festivity turned into mourning as Bota’s body was bought for burial. Later Sultan was told that his brother Bota, a student of Class 12, was out to check the status of his exam papers, when an armoured vehicle of army’s 22 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) appeared and started firing at people indiscriminately, without any provocation. The firing killed two civilians – Mohammad Amin (Bota) and Javaid Ahmad Dar, teenager from Sopore.

That evening when Bota’s body was bought for burial Tantray’s made an emotional appeal to pacify the angry crowds. “Maintain calm as we don’t want to politicise Amin’s martyrdom.”

For next 47 days the restive Bomai remained shut and in mourning. “Despite high tempers we prevented the situation from turning ugly,” says Sultan’s younger brother Mohammad Afzal Tantray, who worked as manager for a Srinagar based Urdu daily for almost a decade. “My brother was not associated with any organisation or ever participated in protests, still they killed him. Why?” asks Afzal.

After the killing of Bota and Javaid an FIR (No: O9/73/302), was lodged in police station Sopore.

“There were no protests that day. Everybody was busy with Urs. It was completely unprovoked and unjustified. It was cold blooded murder,” says Sultan.

As Bomai refused to normalise the then Home Minister of India P Chidambaram ordered an impartial probe in the killing, says Sultan. “But nothing happened. No one was punished.”

But despite knocking all possible doors to seek justice and bring Bota’s murderers to justice, Sultan and his family met with disappointment. “It was only after our lawyer filed an RTI that we got belt numbers of the four accused army personnel,” says Sultan.

When all roads leading to justice got closed, a disturbed Sultan went into self imposed confinement, spending his days at his deceased brother’s room, writing couplets in his memory. The nameplate at Bota’s room is pained in black letter reading: Shaheed Mohammad Amin.

Inside, a black-and-white TV set, single bed, his books, curtains and clock give a feeling of mourning. They are left untouched for years, as if Amin will come back some day.

On the eastern wall, a large cloth black banner with couplets in Urdu written on it, reminds visitors of Bota’s glorious life.

“These couplets are written by Sultan in Bota’s memory,” says Afzal. “After Bota’s killing Sultan started acting weird. He began locking himself in Bota’s room. His only connection with the real world was through poetry,” says Afzal.

The couplet on the large poster hanging in Bota’s room reads:

Witness to your martyrdom is setting sun rays.

Sad earth opened its chest to suck your precious blood.

You quenched the thirst through your blood by piercing throat.

You left the world following footsteps of Asgar (R.A.).

Otherwise known for his mathematic skills, Sultan is now constantly thinking and writing verses.

A few days after Bota’s killing Sultan visited the spot where he was shot. “I collected 39 bullet shells from the spot. The holes left in Chinar tree shook me,” says Sultan. “I could only imagine what my brother had gone through when hit by so many bullets.”

Meanwhile Afzal’s 4-year-old son Sahil, who was listening to the conversation curiously, looks towards Bota’s framed picture and asks: “Where is Bota uncle, who killed him”.

Without saying anything Afzal hugs his son compassionately and starts crying.

In another corner, oblivious to Afzal’s pain, Sultan is lost in his own thought, perhaps maturing a new couplet in his mind for his beloved brother Bota.

What it is like being a female engineer in Kashmir? From being idolized in the peripheries to jeering city crowds Insha Zargar has experienced it all. Saima Bhat tells her story

“Yi kadel che koeri bana’wan…Ye gase neh zhan tay’aar (This bridge is made by girls. It will never be completed)” is what engineer Insha Gandroo Zargar, 34, hears every day since the con-struction of Jahangir Chowk-Rambagh flyover started in 2013.

Insha, a junior engineer, has so far overseen construction of 150 minor bridges for railways as in-charge. “But this current assign-ment is close to my heart,” says Insha, who did her engineering degrees from AMICE, Delhi.

After completing her degrees in 2003, shares Insha, she had to face a hostile private sector, unwilling to recruit a female civil en-gineer.

Insha vividly remembers the response of her first interviewer, who at the end of the interview asked her bluntly: Can you do it? Taken aback, Insha, told him plainly, “Why did you call for an in-terview when you think I wouldn’t be able to do it?”

Her straightforwardness helped Insha get her first job, but not the desired position. “I was assigned to draw designs and do sup-port work. It was disappointing.”

Once in, Insha managed to get herself posted in the field. At that time MandCo, private consultancy company where Insha worked, was monitoring Rs 2000 crore Baramulla-Banihal railway project. “Working in the field was not as easy as I had thought earlier. It was quite challenging,” says Insha.

But despite facing life threatening situations, where one of their colleagues was killed by militants, Insha stayed put at her on field camp site. “Had I left midway, it would have been failure of entire civil engineering group of girls. Nobody would have ever trusted a girl for this work again,” Insha says.

The journey with MandCo, where her work hours often stretch from 8 am to 9 pm, proved life changing for Insha. More than once, Insha was approached by contractors with a request to get more female engineers like her. “It automatically boosted my morale.”

But the most cherished part of her association with MandCo was her filed trips in rural areas. She was famous among folks as ‘Railway Madam’. “People used to come and get photographed with me. They would even ask for my autograph,” recalls Insha flashing a smile. During her stay in rural areas Railway Madam, was default chief guest at every marriage ceremony taking place in the neighborhood. But working in rural areas, especially as a female engineer, has its own drawback. “Entire village would as-semble around you to have a good look at you,” says Insha.

After five years, in 2008, Insha left MandCo and joined J&K gov-ernment’s Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA), as a junior en-gineer in town planning section. “This was a desk job,” says Insha. “I deliberately chose it as I was expecting my first child.”

Two years later, when her baby-girl was able to stay without her, Insha once again asked for a field job. Her second stint with field work coincided with commencement of Detailed Project Report (DPR) for Jahangir Chowk-Rambagh flyover. Sensing opportunity to become part of this mega project Insha went to see the direc-tor JKERA. “I asked him a chance to be part of flyover project,” recalls Insha.

Initially, recalls Insha, the director was apprehensive, as he thought she might not have the required experience or expertise. “But once I told him about my stint with MandCo and the work I had supervised there, he was okay,” says Insha.

Along with a senior engineer Insha was entrusted the job of pre-paring DPR. “There is a notion that a girl cannot head big projects. She needs a male supervisor to look after,” feels Insha. “But I am hopeful that things will change for better.”

Insha is right; there is a visible surge in girls who opt for civil en-gineering as a career. “It (civil engineering) is the best stream for a girl,” feels Insha. “Else, there is a taboo when you are in office and deal with contractors.”