)
Uninformed television anchors have been describing Sajjad Lone as a ‘terrorist’and a ‘traitor’ and wonder how Narendra Modi could countenance meeting a man who was one of India’s enemies. “How could he have done this” asked one such anguished individual, as if it were a personal affront.
Actually nothing could be further than the truth. Sajjad Lone was on the fringes of India-Pakistan politics and like others from his kind of background (politician father, the best of both worlds) out of the Kashmir rebellion circuit - till May 2002: when his father, All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader Abdul Ghani Lone was shot dead by unidentified men wearing police uniform during a public meeting in Srinagar on the evening of 21 May 2002. The incident took place at the Idgah area in Srinagar where a big public meeting of the Hurriyat was being held.
Lone was buried the next day in the Martyrs Cemetary in Srinagar, 50,000 mourners in attendance. An estimated 5000-strong crowd walked the 12 km route from his house to the graveyard. The Valley observed a general strike on 23 May in protest against his killing.
The two assailants were in police uniform. They targeted Lone specifically as other APHC leaders present at the site were not hurt. One of Lone's bodyguards was also killed in the attack while another one was injured. The attackers also lobbed a grenade which failed to explode. At least six others were injured in the attack.
Seventy-year-old Abdul Ghani Lone was rushed to the Soura Medical Institute in Srinagar where he was declared "brought dead".
Abdul Ghani Lone was seen as the top moderate face of the APHC who was closely interacting with Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and supported the forthcoming assembly elections in the state. He supported the resolution of the Kashmir issue politically and was keen that the central government in New Delhi works towards a permanent solution that kept in mind the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
Before his death, Lone senior had a tiff with hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani. While Lone had always pushed for the ouster of foreign militants from the Valley, Geelani had always welcomed them.
Sajjad had accused Geelani and Pakistani spy agency ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) of being responsible for his father’s death when the hardline leader visited the Lone residence to offer his condolences. But he pulled back next day, reportedly at the prodding of his mother, blaming the then chief minister Farooq Abdullah, instead, for not providing adequate security to his father. For this and several public spats later with Geelani, Sajjad was never really welcomed into the separatist fold. Because his father had fought the Abdullah family all his life, he was out of that power circuit as well.
Lone Senior’s killing was the militants' message to the Indian government, and a warning to "moderate" leaders in the APHC (which is a conglomerate of 23 Kashmiri secessionist organizations). Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then in Jammu on the first leg of his recent Kashmir visit, offered his condolences to the family of the slain leader.
For civil society in India, Sajjad Lone, who attempted to contest elections but lost miserably, was the symbol of those who are trying to bring some political normalcy back in Kashmir. He represents the tragedy of Kashmir, a man who cannot meet the Prime Minister of his own country without being branded as selling out by the people of his state and as a traitor by the people of his country.
(Aditi Phadnis is the Political Editor for Business Standard)
