36 Years Later, Jama’at to Remember the Mayhem of April 4

Riyaz Ul Khaliq

SRINAGAR

Representational Picture

Three and a half decades later, pan Kashmir Islamist organization, Jama’at-e-Islami (JeI) J&K is holding a ‘seminar’ on Monday “to remember the events of April 04, 1979”.

Way back in 1979, on this day, the members of JeI were attacked, their properties worth Crores of Indian Rupees destroyed.

Reports said that one person was killed, numerous injured, countless houses were burnt down, schools set ablaze, libraries demolished and the Holy Quran was desecrated by the unruly mob. All done “in the name of Islam”. JeI associates from South Kashmir were the major victims.

There are reports that one person belonging to JeI was killed in North Kashmir’s Sopore town on the same day.

This April 04, the student wing of JeI, Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba (IJT) has scheduled a program: ‘April 4: From 1979 and 2016.

An invitation letter, addressed to a selected group of people, mostly students, and media persons, mentions that the program is held to “remember the events of April 04, 1979 and to analyse the current status of Islamic Movement, its progress and the challenges it faces in Jammu and Kashmir”.

The seminar, the letter adds, will see Dr Hamid Fayaz, Ashiq Hussain and Faheem Muhammad Ramzan narrating the ordeal of the events which unfolded on Aril 04.

Dr Hamid Fayaz was then associated with Shooba-i-Talaba (now Islami Jamiat-e-Talaba); Faheem Muhammad Ramzan, a class ninth student then, is the first person witness of April 04 mayhem.

Jama’at later tasked Ashiq Hussain to record the happenings of the ‘Black April’ in Tehreek-e-Islami, Volume-2. He also edited JeI’s official mouth piece, Azan.

The hanging of former Pakistan premier, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, proved precursor the events. Besides, the JeI members believe that “making Islamic literature and Islamic teachings accessible to the common people did not go well with the secular minded people of Kashmir, who had been teaching people about religion and politics being two different entities”.

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