{"id":92910,"date":"2019-09-10T12:54:19","date_gmt":"2019-09-10T19:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=92910"},"modified":"2019-09-10T12:54:19","modified_gmt":"2019-09-10T19:54:19","slug":"muslim-sikh-cooperation-in-kashmir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/09\/10\/muslim-sikh-cooperation-in-kashmir\/","title":{"rendered":"MUSLIM-SIKH COOPERATION IN KASHMIR"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALI SUKHANVER<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

According\nto an analysis, there are more than 1.8 Billion Muslims and more than 50 Muslim\nmajority countries but among this huge crowd, it is something very unfortunate\nthat there is only and only Pakistan to hold the hands of the helpless\nKashmiris in their miseries and distress. This selfish rather cowardly attitude\nof the so-called Muslim Ummah (community) is simply a blob of shame on the serene<\/em> face of the whole Muslim\ncommunity. Far better in courage and determination is the Sikh community which\nis standing shoulder by shoulder with the Kashmiris everywhere from the valleys\nof Sri Nagar to the streets of London, raising slogans against Indian\natrocities in the burning paradise of Kashmir. Recently when the Modi\ngovernment imposed restrictions on phone and internet services in Jammu and\nKashmir, just to counter the protest processions of the local people, a group\nof 32 Muslim girl students from Sri Nagar was on a visit to Pune. Because of\nthe restrictions imposed on all communication tools, the girls lost all contact\nwith their family. They were facing shortage of money too as their tour could\nnot be completed within the planned period. So these girls approached the Sikh\nGurudwara Committee in Pune for help. The members of Gurudwara committees in\nPune and Delhi joined hands to arrange for their safe return to their homes. The\nPune committee arranged for their air-tickets to Delhi and from there the\nmembers of another Gurudwara committee arranged for their transportation to\nSrinagar. The way the Sikh community provided shelter, care and support to the\nKashmiri girls in trouble is no doubt marvelous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rajeev\nKhanna penned down an article in \u2018The Citizen\u2019 in the second week of this\nAugust 2019 with the title \u2018Punjab Comes Out in Strong Support of Kashmiris\u2019.\nThe article says, \u2018One state that is vociferously raising its voice in support\nof the people of Jammu and Kashmir after the abrogation of Article 370 and 35 A\nby the central government is neighbouring Punjab. Right from the government to\nvarious political organizations and civil society activists and organizations\nboth in India and abroad, there has been opposition to the step taken by the\nCentre, particularly the manner in which it was done by silencing the voice of\nthe Kashmiris\u2019. Same level of support and care for the Kashmiris from the Sikh\ncommunity is being observed all over the world. Analysts are of the view that\nthis support is reciprocal; it is an outcome of a mutual understanding between\nthe Kashmiris and the Sikhs. This year in the month of March a protest was\narranged by a host of Sikh organizations in central London. The protesters were\nseeking release of Sikh prisoners in Indian jails. They also demanded end of\natrocities against Sikhs and Kashmiris by the Indian government. The protest\nprocession was joined by a large number of Kashmiri groups also who had flags\nof Kashmir and Khalistan in their hands. Media reports said that the protest\nwas very much calm and peaceful but later on it turned violent as a pro-Modi\ngroup arrived at the scene and started shouting abuses at the peaceful\nprotesters. The Scotland Yard had to intervene to normalize the situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nis a big problem; it\u2019s not a small thing that (special status) has been revoked.\nWe are extremely disappointed,\u201d said Harbinder Singh talking to the Reuters\nlast week. Harbinder is a businessman from Srinagar belonging to the Sikh\ncommunity and his services for bringing Sikh-Muslim communities closer are well\nknown and widely acknowledged. President of the All Parties Sikh Coordination\nCommittee, Jagmohan Singh Raina also expressed his concerns over the present\nsituation in Kashmir in a recent statement. He said, They (Indian Government)\nhave committed a big blunder; they could have changed laws, but at least they should\nhave consulted us.\u201d He further said expressing his grave fears for the future\nof the Kashmiris We Kashmiris didn\u2019t have much, we just had this special\nstatus, and now this is also taken from us. This will mean that our people will\nfind it hard to get jobs here.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nSikhs are just 2% of the total population in the Indian-Held Kashmir but are\nspread across the state, says a recent report. From farming and government\nservices to running bakeries and provision stores, they are engaged in all\ntypes of social and economic activities. They have a very cordial relationship\nwith the Muslims and interestingly the illegally deputed Indian forces treat\nthem with the same brutality and cruelty with which they treat the Muslims. In\nshort their common sorrows and joys and their common enemy has merged them into\na single identity. This Muslim-Sikh unity is not limited only to the Indian\nHeld Kashmir; all over the world the Sikh community is providing all possible\nsupport to the Kashmiri Muslims and same passion for the Sikh community is\nexpressed by the Muslims. This unity demonstrated by the Sikhs and the Kashmiri\nMuslims has become a pain in the neck of Modi governmentwhichis very much\nmisguided by its own created notion that by depriving Kashmir of its special\nstatus, it would succeed in crushing the demand for an Independent Sikh state\nKhalistan and that for an Independent state of Kashmir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nModi government must keep in mind the fact that no independence movement could\nbe crushed with the help of such silly actions. Neither the Muslims nor the\nSikhs in Kashmir are like a ready-to-eat soft cake placed in show-case of some\nbakery. If it was so easy to swallow them, the Modi government would not have\nimposed such a long curfew in the valley. In spite of a very strict curfew, the\nongoing protest in the Indian Held Kashmir in itself is a proof that the voices\nof the Kashmiris and the Sikhs could never be silenced; it is their\ndetermination which is going to be the last nail in the coffin of Indian\nhegemonic desires in near future.\n\n\n\n\n\n\u0005<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ALI SUKHANVER According to an analysis, there are more than 1.8 Billion Muslims and more than 50 Muslim majority countries but among this huge crowd, it is something very unfortunate that there is only and only Pakistan to hold the hands of the helpless Kashmiris in their miseries and distress. This selfish rather cowardly attitude […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ali-sukhanver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}