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DOST KHAN
JAMMU: Terror mastermind and chief of Lashkar-e-Taiba’s frontal organisation Jamaat-ud-Dawah Hafiz Saeed has made a sensational disclosure that Kashmir floods are ‘creation of India’ and not the fury of nature. His source of information is no less a person than Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a resident of Botingo Sopore, adjacent to Wullar Lake, and presently residing in Hyderpora Srinagar. Saeed told a television channel that he had a detailed interaction with Geelani (not specified through which mode of communication as the world knows that the Valley remained totally cut off for several days) who ‘briefed’ him about floods and damages caused to life and property. There is no reason not to believe Saeed, who is apparently a devout Muslim. He says that Geelani told him that floods were ‘diverted’ to Srinagar city and parts of the Valley by Indians under a conspiracy. The hardcore hawk seems to be suffering from nightmares. Geelani is also reported to have told his ‘point-man’ Saeed, currently camping in Pakistan occupied Kashmir that Kashmiris were neither rescued nor provided any relief by the Indian Government. Geelani, according to Saeed, has accused Indian Air Force and the Indian Army of rescuing only outsiders and Hindus stranded in the marooned areas. He has no idea of over two lakh affected people rescued from most dangerous localities of the city.
Ever agile and immensely vocal Syed Ali Geelani has not denied what Hafiz Saeed has spoken to television channels. He has not verified either how he maintained a contact with the world’s most wanted terrorist, as all communication channels, except the army’s satellite phones, were down due to the calamity. Geelani has not spoken a word about the devastation and the rescue operations launched by multiple agencies for about a week in Srinagar and its peripheries notwithstanding the fact that he visited some Hindu and Sikh sufferers in a Gurdwara in close vicinity of Sanat Nagar Bagat Srinagar where he had to allegedly make a quick retreat when confronted by some youths.
Hafiz Saeed has given inkling of the events that will unfold in Kashmir when the Valley will gradually return to near normalcy. This is the line (Indians drowned Kashmir in floods) which is going to be the anthem of India bashers in days to come. Unfortunately, this line will also get acceptance by most of those saved by the valiant forces during their hour of distress. The assessment is based on the experience witnessed after devastating earthquake in north Kashmir in 2005. There will be no counter by the so-called mainstream leaders, who will, in fact add more spice to the stories to be spread by sympathisers of the terror regime to derive political mileage.
Hafiz Saeed’s musings have come the day Pakistan gave a clean chit to him in 26/11 Mumbai mayhem by saying there was no case against him and ‘he was free to roam’. He is exactly doing that by pouring in venom against India from Pakistan soil and its occupied Kashmir. He started with interesting take on floods. He held India responsible for floods in PoK, saying water was released in rivers without notifying Pakistan. He also offered help to Kashmir; saying Modi led government was not capable of doing so. He also talked about terrorism of a different kind, not the one he is a master in. He described Ladakh Dam as threat to Pakistan and tweeted, “If India’s Ladakh Dam project is completed, even Islamabad will become unsafe. Indian water terrorism is more lethal than its LoC violations”. He called for India to be taken to the United Nations for “water attack on Pakistan”.
The question is not what Syed Geelani or Hafiz Saeed are saying or practicing. The shocker is how the people across the borders or in Kashmir believe in lunatic arguments being put forth by those who are seen as Messiahs or saviours. They have indoctrinated generations, most of them educated and emancipated, who, in the process, have been instrumental in decimating Kashmir and its glorious ethos. They are the people who have brought the Valley to such a morass where from return seems to be bleak. Many in Kashmir are suffering from a peculiar mind-set which is getting firmer day after day and it is this syndrome that is going to ruin the paradise.
