NEW DELHI: A hereditary Islamic leader, the most senior and influential opponent of Indian rule in Kashmir, was assassinated in his home in the state’s capital Monday.
When 100,000 angry mourners followed his body through the streets of the city, security forces opened fire killing at least 30 people and wounding some 200 according to hospital doctors,
The assassination of the 45 year old leader, Maulvi Mohammed Farooq, and the shootings that followed inflamed an already tense and deteriorating political situation.
Since January, New Delhi has ordered more army and paramilitary troops into the state of Jammu and Kashmir to crush separatist protests and to enforce long periods of curfew. At the same time in Pakistan, the government of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has again raised slogans challenging New Delhi’s control of the only Indian state that has a Muslim majority.
Mr. Faroog who was also known by the title Mirwaiz or Chief Preacher of Kashmir, was killed by three young men described as non-Kashmiris by relatives. According to police reports, they calmly signed the visitor’s book before entering the leader’s study in the city of Srinagar and firing many rounds. Doctors said Mr. Farooq was hit with 15 bullets.
The killers fled, and the police did not give out the names they used to sign the book nor disclose their religious affairs.
Despite the curfew that was in effect, tens of thousands of people assembled at the hospital. They formed a procession of wailing and breast beating mousers that set out escorting the coffin back to the dead man’s office six miles away.
Reports of the shooting that followed vary. According to some Muslim mourners the procession had walked some six miles, gathering more people, when members of the Central Police force opened fire. These mourners say that in the barrage, Mr. Farooq’s coffin was hit and that the body fell out and incurred fresh wounds. It was reportedly placed back in the coffin and mourners ran with it down back alleys, taking it to the office.
This account could not be confirmed or dismissed.
Hospital doctors said at least 60 people were killed and at least 200 others wounded.
Some government officials in New Delhi said the police had opened fire only after having been fired upon by militants among the mourners.
Mr. Faroog had been a moving force of Kashmiri secessionism since the late 19 60’s when he headed the pro-Pakistani Awami Action Committee which he founded as a Muslim self-defense group. At that time he was overshadowed in influence and stature by Sheik Abdullah, But since the death of the Sheik in 1982, Mr. Farooq was the best known living link to the an old struggle that led to fighting between India and Pakistan in 1947,19 65 and 1971.
In recent months Mr. Farooq often berated Western journalists for what he saw as reluctance to report on human rights violations against Muslims.
“Tell the West,” he said in his last interview with this reporter, “that a million people are being held hostage here by India.” He was referring to the curfews that kept people bound to their homes for long periods.
Mr. Gates who arrived from Islamabad, was told by Indian leaders before news of the killings had spread that there could be no dialogue until Pakistan stopped fomenting terrorism in Kashmir.
Mr. Farooq founded the Awami committee in 19 64 in the wake of the theft of a holy relic a hair of the prophet Mohammed from the Hazratbal a local Muslim shrine. The next year, he was imprisoned without trial for two years.
Although he could preach fire and brimstone in his weekly sermons he was in the end a political moderate as politics in the region hurtled toward extremism. “His death will leave a big void, difficult to fill,” said Jagmohan, the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 11, 1990
