Maulana Showkat Shah,head of the Jamiat Ahle Hadees,the Valleys influential puritanical religious group,had left a little earlier from his home in Lal Bazaar locality to deliver Khutba the customary recitation of a part of the Quran before Friday prayers on April 9. He arrived at Ahle Hadith mosque in volatile Maisuma a little past noon. While his driver,son and two security guards were parking their vehicle,Shah headed to the back of the mosque to take the stairs that led to the pulpit,little knowing that an IED tied to a bicycle was parked close to the steps. As he started climbing,the device exploded,killing the 55-year-old cleric. Srinagar plunged into chaos,with Maisuma as the epicentre.
Thousands of Ahle Hadith supporters were joined by JKLF activists since Shah was a close associate of JKLF chairman Yasin Malik. They crowded the street outside the mosque,chanting slogans. But beyond a surge of anger,the incident has confounded many. For one,this has happened at a time when Kashmir is apparently free of political discord over a dialogue with the Centre. The Valley is no longer in the throes of a polarising public unrest. Besides,the situation in Kashmir,even though it continues to be uncertain,had transformed enough over the past couple of years for many to conclude that political assassination is a tragedy of the past.
That statement has returned to haunt the region,as questions are raised with even more urgency on who killed Maulana Showkat Shah and why.
He had been attacked twice earlier,and on both occasions the Valley was in the midst of a polarising political climate. The first was in 2006 when unidentified gunmen fired on his vehicle. The second was in 2008: there was a grenade attack on his Lal Bazaar residence. At that time,there was a public groundswell over the Amarnath land row and Shah was a member of the Hurriyat Coordination Committee,charged with formulating protest programmes. A little-known group called Hizbul Muslimeen later took responsibility for the attack.
Was Shah assassinated because of his religious and political role which some quarters saw as too liberal for a Wahhabi and sometimes contrary to the general separatist tenor in the Valley? He had met former governor of J&K,S.K. Sinha,during the 2008 Amarnath agitation and had recently opposed those who pelted stones,calling stone-lobbing un-Islamic. Or should it be traced to a gathering momentum for a political consensus on Kashmir? Shahs death could be designed to send a tough message to separatists who are inclined to accommodation on a Kashmir settlement. Separatists,who are now open to acknowledging the role of own men in political murders,are not ruling out any angle.
Whatever be the reason for the killing Shahs personal politics,an extreme message to separatists or some other unknown factor it is a huge setback for the situation in Kashmir.
The killing,this time,is likely to affect the Kashmir dimension of the ongoing process of dialogue on the state which seemed headed for resuscitation following the resumption of India-Pakistan talks.
Last year,it was the attack on veteran Hurriyat leader Fazal Haq Qureshi that put an end to the fledgling quiet dialogue between the Centre and the Hurriyat doves and prevented its revival.
Showkat Shahs assassination is destined to leave a much deeper impact and could limit the ability of separatists to engage sustainably with New Delhi unless of course they are sure it will lead to an acceptable outcome. Much will also depend on how India-Pakistan dialogue will progress in the days to come.
Shahs assassination also shows up the fragile nature of Kashmirs political environment,caught as it is in a predictable pattern of peaceful interludes and long periods of exceptional tumult. The situation goes off on a tangent when peace appears bona fide and poised to last.
riyaz.wani@expressindia.com
