Srinagar: Thousands of people, from different walks of life, staged a rally in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PaK) on Tuesday to condemn the United States administration’s decision of designating United Jihad Council (UJC) Chief Syed Salahuddin as a “terrorist”.
The US State Department on Monday designated Salahuddin, who is also supreme commander of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen – the largest of around a dozen militant groups fighting against Indian rule in Jammu and Kashmir – as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT)” and imposed sanctions on him.
Government of Pakistan criticised the move but asserted to continue support to Kashmir “in whatever form or manifestation”.
The decision drew criticism and condemnation from both sides of the Line of Control (LoC), with Kashmiris chiding the Donald Trump administration for “equating their legitimate struggle for internationally acknowledged right to self-determination with terrorism”.
“Syed Salahuddin Ahmed is not a terrorist, but a freedom fighter,” read one of the several banners being carried by the demonstrators, who started a rally from Muzaffarabad’s famous Burhan Wani Chowk.
The demonstrators also torched a tri-colour amid anti-India and pro-freedom slogans.
“Syed Salahuddin is the name of an ideology, a thought and a determination,” read another banner.
Representatives of militant groups and political parties took strong exception to the decision which they said was a reprehensible attempt by the Trump administration to please India.
“Our struggle is for the fulfilment of a promise that India had itself repeatedly made to us after 1947 before the comity of nations, but later backed out from its commitments,” said Uzair Ahmed Ghazali, in a reference to the promise of a UN sponsored plebiscite in the disputed region.
He called upon China to come forward against this decision “as well.”
Previously, China has twice blocked a US proposal to get Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar listed on a UN list of “designated terrorists”.
Speaking at the rally, Khawaja Farooq Ahmed, a senior leader of the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and a former PaK minister, said it was the weak foreign policy of PML-N led government in Islamabad that had encouraged Trump administration to take this step during Modi’s visit.
“If you are serious in your avowals of extending diplomatic, political and moral support to the Kashmiris, then you should show some strength and as a first step summon the US and Indian envoys in Foreign Office to lodge protest over this unfair decision,” he said addressing the federal government.
Ahmed also asked the AJK government to give a strike call on both sides of disputed Kashmir, like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had given for February 28, 1974, to express rejection of the US decision.
“All political parties and Mujahideen groups should be taken on board to make this strike a historic one,” he said.
Salahuddin, 71, has five sons and two daughters who live in the Kashmir valley.
He hails from central Kashmir’s Budgam district, and had moved to Pakistan administered Kashmir in or around 1989 after he contested the Kashmir Assembly elections on a Muslim United Front (MUF) ticket in 1987.
Salahuddin finished his Masters in Political Science at Srinagar University in 1971, where he wrote several poems.
He later jointed Jama’at-e-Islami (JeI) after concluding his education and contested state elections in 1987.
He was arrested from inside the ticket counting hall in Srinagar and eventually released in 1989.
The MUF alleged widespread rigging of polls by the NC-Congress alliance led by Dr Farooq Abdullah.
He formed and joined the Hizbul Mujahideen.
Along with Hizb ul Mujahideen, Salahuddin also leads the United Jihad Council (UJC), which is a conglomerate of many militant outfits operating in Jammu and Kashmir since mid-1990s.
He hailed Burhan Wani as a ‘martyr’, and promised to turn the Kashmir valley “into a graveyard for Indian forces.”
On Monday, the UJC chief issued a week-long calendar on the death anniversary of Burhan whose killing on July 08, 2016 triggered a massive anti-India uprising during which armed forces shot dead over hundred civilians.
