SRINAGAR, July 29: The remarks of India’s former Defence Minister Jaswant Singh that Pakistani militant commander Mast Gul, involved in siege of Chrar-e-Sharief shrine in 1995, was “escorted to the Line of Control after he had vacated the Dargah” has again thrown up a question. Who set the shrine on fire?
“I remind you of a wonderful dargah in the Valley that was burnt. Narasimha Rao was the Prime Minister. I know for a fact that Mast Gul vacated the dargah and he was escorted all the way to the LoC and permitted to go,” Singh told the Indian Express.
Singh’s remarks are significant as even 17 years after, mystery surrounds the incident and particularly how the shrine caught fire.
If Singh’s revelations, that Gul had “vacated” the dargah, are to be believed, then the militant commander and his men are cleared of accusations that they sparked the fire at the shrine which destroyed the centuries-old structure and also the relics of saint Sheikh Nooruddin Wali.
In February 1995, Mast Gul was in the 14th century Charar-e-Sharief, organising his men for a prolonged confrontation with the security forces. For two months, a standoff had continued between the two sides till the shrine had burnt down in a mysterious fire on May 10.
While the Army had accused militants of triggering blasts, the militants had claimed that the Army damaged the dargah in an attack to flush them out.
Until Singh comes out with more straight an answer, the mystery will perhaps persist.
