‘Need to safeguard Urdu language’
Srinagar: Syed Ali Geelani was not allowed to step out of his residence to attend the Urdu book fair at University of Kashmir where he was invited, Hurriyat Conference (G) said on Friday.
The amalgam in a statement issued to GNS said Geelani’s Hyderpora office-cum-residence, which has been converted into jail for the last one decade, was cordoned off by extra police force to sabotage and prevent him from attending this purely academic activity.
Meanwhile, condemning the police action, Geelani in the statement said: “I was going to meet my beloved youth, interact and spend some time with them and it was a peaceful and apolitical event. But not only are our political and religious but academic and educational activities too are curbed and forcibly stopped with the barrel of gun.”
“Hardly anybody have witnessed such incidents in so-called world’s largest democracy, where a 90-year-old person is confined to the four walls of his house for the last almost a decade and all his personal, social, religious and academic activities are curtailed and the brazen and egoist rulers and their on-sale bureaucracy proudly does so,” he said.
Hurriyat (G) chairman said that youth particularly students would have been waiting in the lawns of the Kashmir University and “I too was eager and enthusiastic to be among them after a very long gap”.
In his message, Geelani said that “these dark and gloomy clouds of oppression will Insha Allah fade away and this frightening and distressing night of slavery is surely going to have a glorious dawn of freedom”.
Expressing his serious concern over the extinction of Urdu language, Geelani said that most of our literature is in Urdu particularly in this subcontinent and our carelessness and non-seriousness about it will deprive not only us but our coming generations of the valuable and literary treasure of our faith and culture.
He requested students, researchers, teachers and educationists to come forward to safeguard this language and oppose tooth and nail any mischief to suppress it.
Hurriyat (G) chairman said that “communal forces have very cunningly attributed this language to Muslims only and likewise is treated as a minority, but fact of the matter is that this melodious language has echoed in every soul irrespective of its faith and religion”.
Even in our homes, our kids speak Urdu, but struggle very hard when it comes to reading and writing, which is pathetic, he said.
Congratulating the organizers and participants this book fair, he said that these people have travelled from far off places to this strife torn land and have camped for the last one week to promote Urdu, “we as a bruised nation, apprise and acknowledge their sincere efforts for this sweet language”.
He appealed to the students, scholars and budding academicians to get to the zenith of knowledge and analysis. “You need to concentrate on your education, research and work hard, but also remain connected to your roots as well,” he said.
“We as a nation need to be equipped with the latest technology in every field to face the present day challenges,” Geelani said. (GNS)
