Sheikh Abdul Aziz (1952-2008)

Obituary
Sheikh Abdul Aziz (1952-2008)
Chairman Jammu Kashmir People’s League
By Murtaza Shibli
One of the prominent Hurriyat Conference leaders, 55 year old Sheikh Abdul Aziz was
killed by the bullets of Indian paramilitary forces on 11^th August 2008 while leading a
peaceful public demonstration against the ‘economic blockade’ of the Kashmiri Muslims
being enforced by militant Indian Hindu groups allegedly with the tacit support of the
Indian government. He was born in 1952 in Namblabal, Pampore close to the capital
city Srinagar but in Pulwama district. Soon after passing his 10^th grade from a local
school, Aziz joined his father’s agriculture business including growing high yield saffron,
for which his hometown is famous throughout the Kashmir valley.

As a teenager, Aziz watched moe-e-muqqadus movement when millions of Kashmiris
came out on streets against the mysterious theft of highly revered holy relic of Prophet
Mohammad (SAW) from the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar. The agitation soon transformed
into pro-freedom public outpouring with millions of Kashmiris demanding freedom from India.
Although the relic was later recovered without ever revealing any culprits, it is generally
believed that the then Indian Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru, himself a Kashmiri
Pandit was behind the conspiracy using it as a pretext to unseat the local Kashmiri Prime Minister.

Moe-e-Muqqadas movement renewed decades old Kashmiri demands for freedom,
giving inspiration to a new generation of Kashmiris including Aziz. In 1972 he joined
pro-freedom political group Young Men’s League that called for the Kashmiri right to
self-determination according to the UN Resolutions. He was soon targeted by the
police and his first arrest came at the age of 20 when he was booked under
the infamous and draconian National Security Act. At that time, he was the Block
Secretary of the organisation. In 1973 the Young Man’s League merged into other
pro-freedom groups forming the Jammu and Kashmir People’s League to which
Aziz remained associated with till his death. In 1986 he became the general secretary
of the People’s League, the responsibility he carried on till 1990, when amid massive
public resentment against the Indian rule; he ditched his political avatar and joined
the militant resistance movement. He became the chief commander of Al-Jihad, a
formidable militant group in early 1990s that was supported by his parent organisation,
Jammu and Kashmir People’s League.

Due to his involvement with the pro-freedom struggle, the arrests and prison sentences became a permanent fixture of Sheikh Aziz’s political life - he spent more than 15 years in prison under various charges including sedition, seeking to separate Jammu and Kashmir from the Indian control and waging a militant struggle etc. His longest spell of incarceration came on 21^st May 1993 when he was arrested as the chief commander of now defunct Al-Jehad and lasted till 27^th September 2000. Following his release after nearly nine years of gruelling prison life, Aziz re-joined political struggle but was again arrested on 1^st August 2001 for nearly three years and released in February 2004 at the peak of India-Pakistan peace process. After his release, he supported the peace process and called for peaceful solution of the Kashmir issue. He later visited Pakistan to encourage the ongoing India-Pakistan peace process and supported the end of hostilities. However, a year later, he was again arrested on 5^th February 2005 and released only last November. After his release this time, Aziz joined the ‘moderate’ faction of the Hurriyat Conference, a conglomerate of the pro-freedom Kashmiri groups and once again reiterated his demand for peaceful resolution of the Kashmir problem. However, as the current crisis that was triggered by the illegal transfer of Kashmiri land to a semi-government Hindu body - Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB) unfolded, Aziz along with other Kashmiri leaders took a strong stand, keeping in view the strong public sentiment against it, who see the land transfer as a covert Indian plan to seek demographic changes in the Muslim majority Jammu and Kashmir. Only days ago, Aziz was instrumental in bringing the two factions of the Hurriyat Conference together, forging a common Kashmiri response to the SASB controversy and therefore was seen unfavourably by both the local pro-Indian administration and the Indian state.

Sheikh Abdul Aziz is the second chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir People’s League to have been killed by the paramilitary forces. Earlier, Abdul Hamid Wani popularly known as S Hamid was killed in a staged encounter on April 19, 1998 at Ahmad Nagar on the outskirts of Srinagar. With his brutal death, Aziz will emerge as new ‘martyr’ of Kashmiri cause in league with Maqbool Bhat and may cause a serious blow to the current India-Pakistan peace process, further narrowing down chances of any rapprochement between the beleaguered Kashmiri nation and the increasingly militant Indian state.