EIGHT million Muslims in India-held Kashmir have been under a lockdown for over 60 days. But no Muslim MPs sought the permission of the India government or Supreme Court to visit them.

Sitaram Yechury, a socialist leader, wanted to visit the valley to see his party colleague Yousuf Tarigami of CPI-M. Upon the government’s refusal, he obtained the Supreme Court’s permission to do so.

Let Pakistanis know that 180 million Muslims in India have no real leader, only sordid muckrakers. The self-styled Muslim leaders largely supported the abrogation of special status (Article 370) and hereditary rights (Article 35-A) for petty gains.

They include Arshad Madani, Barrister Asaduddin Owaisi (All India Majlise-Ittahdul Muslimeen), Maulana Mehmood Madani, general-secretary of Deoband’s Jamiat-Ulema-i-Hind (council of Indian Muslim theologians), and his uncle Arshad Madani, the president of the same council, Ahmad Bukhari (Shahi Imam of Delhi’s Jama Masjid), Azam Khan Advocate (Samajwadi Party) and Kalbe Jawad, a leading Shia leader.

Twenty-five per cent to 30pc of the Kashmiri population of eight million is Shia. The Muslim leaders preferred to ally themselves with Modi as the government had threatened to scrutinise the flow of funds from Saudi Arabia, Iraq or Iran into their accounts. The religious luminaries also fear an inquiry into the land grabbed by them and the illegal sale of Waqf properties.

It is surprising that secularist champions of human rights also are mum about Kashmiris plight. They include Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Saeed Naqvi and Arif Mohammad Khan.

Khalid Masood

Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, October 19th, 2019