Mohammad Touseef
Srinagar:Over the days kashmir has been entangled and engulfed in yet another cycle of agony, fear and dilapidation. The clouds of deluge are looming large around the valley and in its commencement only it has claimed as many as 20 lives. With great many localities inundated and hundreds of houses caught in the grip of consequent soil erosions and landslides, people in the valley are spending worrisome days and fearful nights.
People across the length and breadth of the valley are taking every step and leaving no stone unturned ranging from prayers to physical protection to avoid the replica of the catastrophe that struck the valley in September 2014. The Pro-freedom leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani played no exception to the trend and asked the people of the valley to offer special prayers on Ist of April to beseech the Almighty for showering the bounties of his mercy and save the people and land of kashmir from an impending fury of nature. The octagenarian veteran leader who is scheduled to return back to the valley on 2nd of April as always found mass followers to his call.
Throughout the day people could be seen holding special prayers at all the places to avoid an impending disaster. Even the traders of the heart of the summer capital(Lal Chowk) were seen doing ‘sasrass’ a special kind of religious ritual for the avoidance of deluge in the valley, especially seeking the divine intervention of Almighty for the stoppage of excessive rains in the Valley.
Moreover, what caught the eyeballs of the people was the tour of CM, Mufti Muhammad Sayeed to Asar-e- Shareef Dargah, Hazratbal for holding special prayers for the safety of the valley and its people. The J&K Chief Minister apart from offering Special prayers for the Safety of the kashmir valley also paid obeisance at the revered shrine. The Chief Minister also prayed at the shrine for the improvement of weather conditions in the State. The entourage of Mr. Mufti Sayeed included Minister of Health & Medical Education, Ch. Lal Singh, Minister for Education, Naeem Akhtar, Minister of State for Health & Medical Education, Asiya Naqash and Vice-Chairman, J&K Wakaf Board, Peer Mohammad Hussain.
“Pertinently the special religious visit comes on the very day on which Syed Ali Shah.Geelani had asked the people of Valley to offer special prayers. Consequently a wave has started making rounds around the social and political circles of the valley that, was the visit scheduled in the back drop of the call given by Syed Ali Shah Geelani or the merging of his visit with Mr. Geelani’s call is a mere coincidence? However, one thing need not be forgotten that the call given by Mr. Geelani had gone viral a day before only and an ace politician and head of the government of J&K could noways afford to not be intimated about the same. The very thought maximizes the probability of the claim that Mr. Mufti Muhammad Sayeed scheduled his visit in concurrence to Mr.Geelani’s call.