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Taliban defaming Islam: Ali Geelani

<>i* IHK separatist leader tells Pakistan to talk to its ‘aggrieved people’

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: Taliban are defaming Islam by killing innocent people and destabilising Pakistan, Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani said on Saturday.

“In no way does Islam allow the killing of innocent people and what the Taliban are doing in Pakistan is condemnable,” he said at a gathering in Shopian.

Defying restriction by the state police, Geelani made a surprise appearance at the gathering and led a procession against the illegal occupation of IHK farmland by Indian security forces.

He said the Taliban had uprooted values of Islam.

“They (Taliban) are portraying Islam in a poor light and are defaming it. I advise them to give up violence and bring Islamic revolution in the country by adopting peaceful means,” Geelani said.

‘Aggrieved people’: He also blamed successive Pakistani governments for the present state of affairs, advising Islamabad to talk to its own people, “who may have some genuine grievances”.

“We share religious and emotional bonds with Pakistan. Our heart bleeds when we see innocent people being killed there,” he said. “The people of Pakistan have always supported our cause and we stand by them in these tough times.”

Commenting on his conversation with former president Pervez Musharraf, Geelani said, “He wanted to switch from the traditional stand on Kashmir and wanted us to stamp his four-point formula. I outrightly rejected it and categorically told him that we cannot betray our martyrs.”

He said he had suggested Musharraf to use political means to tackle the problems in Balochistan and the Tribal Areas. “But, he turned it down and even mocked that we (Kashmiri leaders) don’t know the ground realties.”

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