By Praveen Swami
Can Kashmir’s major political parties rebuild a relationship with their secessionist adversaries?
Back in the summer of 1986, the Lions and the Goats met at Srinagar’s Jama Masjid, and vowed to work together to secure Kashmir’s future.
National Conference president Farooq Abdullah was the heir to the legacy of Shér-i-Kashmir [‘the Lion of Kashmir’], his father Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. His new-found ally, the powerful Srinagar cleric Maulvi Mohamm ad Farooq, led the Bakras, or goats, derisively nicknamed so for their long beards. Much of modern Kashmir’s history was shaped by the often-violent clashes between the Shér and the Bakra: between the radical party of the peasants and workers and the cleric-led pious, often pro-Pakistan urban petit bourgeoisie.
But the improbable ‘Double-Farooq’ alliance flourished. It helped both the National Conference and the traditionalist clergy ward off competition from Islamist groups like the Jamaat-e-Islami. Despite intense pressure from jihadists, Maulvi Farooq never repudiated his alliance with Farooq Abdullah, nor called for the secession of Jammu and Kashmir — decisions that led to the cleric’s assassination in May 1990 at the hands of a Hizb ul-Mujahideen terrorist.
Last month, Abdullah invited his secessionist adversaries to rebuild that improbable alliance. “You have seen the Double-Farooq accord”, he told journalists, few of whom were in fact old enough to have done so, “and I hope Allah will let me live long enough to see the Double-Omar accord.”
http://newageislam.com/fathers,-sons-and-kashmiri-politics--/islam-and-politics/d/1424
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