By IRNA,
Srinagar : Hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Muslims calling for freedom from India, in an unprecedented show of Muslim unity, converged at historic Eidgah in this capital city today for Friday prayers.
Waving green Islamic flags and shouting “we want freedom”, men, women, old and young from various Muslim sects including mainstream Sunni and minority Shia community marched from almost every corner towards the sprawling Eidgah grounds in down town Srinagar in what is said to be one of the biggest public gatherings in recent memory.
Since early today whole city was reverberating with the cries of “Azadi” and Islam.
People came from all over. They came on foot, in buses, trucks in their own vehicles and filled nearly every inch of the massive grounds over looking the historic mosque of Ali Mardan. They shouted and sang in unison, Allah-u-Akbar, “No Compromise, No Surrender, We Want Freedom” and “Indian army go back.”
All pro-independence leaders joined prayers shoulder to shoulder in the front row in a rare show of unity.
Later, Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq in his address declared that the struggle for freedom will continue with more vigour and determination. He read the announcement from Coordination Committee which is spearheading the current movement asking people to fill the Srinagar city centre on Monday.
“There will be a complete strike for three days and on Monday people will assemble at Lal Chowk or Red Square”, the nerve centre of capital city “where future course of action will be announced”, he said.
All government offices are situated in the vicinity of Lal Chowk and call for march to Lal Chowk has a symbolic value as had today’s joint prayers, observers say.
A senior police official told IRNA that despite massive size of the gathering there was no report of any untoward incident and people remarkably maintained high degree of discipline.
“It seemed there is no government in Kashmir today”, said Rauf Ahmad Sarwal, a dentist who was witnessing the demonstration. Indian soldiers normally manning every square of the city confined themselves to their bunkers and no policemen was seen anywhere leaving city streets for young men to manage for the day.
The new spate of massive Kashmir demonstrations are reminiscent of those when an armed uprising against Indian rule broke out in 1989.
However the difference this time is that there are no militants around and the uprising is completely peaceful so far.