Kashmir is integral part of India, no 'ifs' and 'buts' about it: Spiritual leader Syed Salman Chishty

Spiritual leader Haji Syed Salman Chishty of Ajmer Sharif has asserted that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and there are no 'ifs' and 'buts' about it.

"Kashmir has always been an integral part of India. There is no ifs and buts about it and there cannot be," he told ANI after addressing an event at the University of Geneva.

Salman Chishty continued, "It's an opportunity and it's a way where every Kashmiri should come forward and contribute and embrace this opportunity for the sake of their own children, for the sake of their children's future and for the sake of Kashmir to be prosperous."

Haji Syed Salman Chishty is among the "Syed o Saddat and Chishty Sufi family of Ajmer Sharif" whose lineage goes back all the way to the Holy Prophet of Islam.

Criticising Pakistan over its misinformation over abrogation of Article 370 and 35(A) and allegations of a deliberate attempt by New Delhi to sabotage the Muslims of Jammu and Kashmir, the spiritual leader said, "Pakistan has their own ideas, their own language that they can use and justify whatever the thing they think about 8 or 9 crore Muslims in Kashmir. When they put these numbers, do they become blind to see 180 million Muslims across India living peacefully, happily contributing to the nation-state building for over hundreds of years? It is their own blindness which restricts them to see the full picture that India is".

Haji Syed Salman Chishty is the 26th generation Gaddi-Nashin (Hereditary-Custodians) through his Chishty family which has been engaged in serving at the globally famed, acknowledged and renowned Dargah Ajmer Sharif Sufi shrine of the 11th Century Sufi Grand Master Hz. Khwaja Moinuddin Hasan Chishty in Rajasthan, India.

He said that people in Jammu and Kashmir have a prosperous future ahead.

"Kashmiris they know for sure that the future for their children, for themselves couldn't better anywhere else than India. Every Kashmiri on the ground knows by their heart and they know for sure that this is where they belong, which is India", he said.

The spiritual leader said that Kashmir is a land of Sufi saints. "Kashmir has always been known as the valley of the saints. The Sufi, rishi, the bhakti traditions have been so integral. Even today, the Kashmiris who come to the Ajmer Dargah Sharif, in winter you will see many Kashmiris coming, especially the Bakarwals, the Gujjars who are coming to the Ajmer Dargah Sharif and they are shedding their tears of longing and belonging when they come to the spiritual solace of Dargah of Khwaja Garib Nawaz. And, they address us as "rishis", when they come, they don't use terminology like Syed Sahab or Hadrat. They call us rishis while addressing."

"So that is the syncretic beauty of Kashmir that has always been for hundreds and thousands of years. And that cannot be taken away from Kashmir and the Kashmiriyat is in true essence which is lived by these people who believe in the syncretic and puristic value of being Kashmiri and really realizing the values and the importance in their daily lives of these traditions which have been passed on from their fathers, grandfathers and generations. And that is true Kashmiriyat is!", said Syed Salman Chishty.