What the Tigers did was 'horrendous', says Hakeem
Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader Rauff Hakeem
is an angry man.
He is angry with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) for driving the Muslims out of Muttur and killing large numbers
of them.
"What the LTTE has done to Muslims is absolutely
horrendous. Tigers are to be blamed for making incursions into Muttur.
We have been subjected to torture just because the Tigers think we are
collaborating with the Army," he told this correspondent on Thursday, at
the end of his visit to New Delhi where he briefed politicians and
security officials about the plight of the Muslims in Sri Lanka.
Hakeem, who appeared particularly miffed with the
LTTE, maintained that over 100 Muslim civilians, including women and
children, were slaughtered by the Tigers in the recent conflict.
The Muslim-Tamil relationship took a serious turn in
1990, when the LTTE expelled 90,000 Muslims from Jaffna overnight and
killed 140 Muslims in the Kaathankudy mosque in Batticaloa district.
But later, the LTTE apologised to the Muslims.
But Hakeem has little faith in the LTTE. It is
worthless even to speak to them, he says.
"The LTTE leadership has a funny attitude. No one can
contact them. What they have done this time is simply unforgettable. The
LTTE broke our trust.
I was assured by Prabhakaran that our people will be
protected when I signed a pact with him," Hakeem said.
Hakeem opined that constant international pressure
could arrest the situation in Sri Lanka. And India, he said, could play
a proactive part in this.
Sri Lankan Muslims could now look up to India for the
protection of their interest because the Indian view of the Muslim
question had undergone a sea change since the India-Sri Lanka Accord of
July 1987, the Muslim leader said.
While in Delhi, Hakeem met Minister of State for
External Affairs E Ahamed and the National Security Advisor M. K.
Narayanan.
"My discussion with Narayanan was very reassuring. He
talked about the need to have a Southern consensus. The Indian position
is that Sri Lanka should decide what it wants. India is willing to help
us and Muslims can now look up to India," Hakeem said.
In its anxiety to please the Tamils, India had ignored
the Muslims altogether in the Indo-Lanka accord of July 1987, and it was
this which had led to the formation of the Sri Lankan Muslim Congress,
Hakeem recalled.
"India should not have a tunnelled vision towards the
Sri Lankan crisis. The crisis in the nation doesn't just pertain to the
Tamils and Sinhalese. There is a Muslim angle to it too. Unfortunately
there was nothing for the Muslims in the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord," he
said.
However, of late, the Indian attitude towards Sri
Lankan Muslims had undergone a sea change, Hakeem noted. India wants to
cultivate the Muslims and see that frustration with the Tamils and the
LTTE does not drive them into the deadly embrace of the Islamic
militants with foreign connections.
Muslims too have umbilical cord with India. "Just like
Tamils, the umbilical cord between the Sri Lankan Muslims and India
cannot be severed," Hakeem asserted.
Courtesy: Daily News.
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