Srinagar, February 11: Kashmiris are observing a day long strike today to remember one of the most prominent pro-independence figures who was hanged this day in 1984.
Muhammad Maqbool Bhat, founder leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, was hanged at Delhi’s Tihar Jail and his body buried inside the high security prison premises by the authorities.
Maqbool’s death sparked a mass movement for independence in Kashmir which was suppressed by the government machinery. Five years later, an armed uprising against Indian rule began in Kashmir which has so far left more than sixty thousand people dead and an unspecified number injured. The dead includes hundreds of Indian soldiers as well.
Every year 11th February is observed as Maqbool day by people across the divide in both Indian and Pakistani controlled parts of the state. People have eversince been clamoring for the return of Maqbool Bhat’s remains for a decent burial in his homeland.
On Monday business and commercial houses in capital Srinagar and other major towns across Kashmir remained closed, even government offices witnessed thin attendance and public transport stayed off the roads.
Pro-Independence JKLF and the main separatist alliance All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) were planning seminars and protest rallies to pay tributes the departed leader.
A procession will be taken out to the office of the United Nations Observer Group in Srinagar and a memorandum presented there to demand the remains of Kashmiri leader, a JKLF spokesman said.
APHC has already declared that it will be approaching the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to press India to hand over the remains of Mohammad Maqbool Bhat to Kashmiris.
Significantly, pro-India leaders too have thrown their weight behind the pro-independence groups demanding return of Maqbool’s remains.
“The demand is genuine. Let’s not have any two opinions about it,” the Deputy Chief Minister and senior leader of ruling Peoples Democratic Party, Muzaffar Hussain Baig was quoted as saying by local media. Baig, before joining politics, was a prominent lawyer and has pleaded Maqbool’s case in Indian Supreme Court.