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ISLAMABAD:
Senior leader of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and Jammu Kashmir Salvation Movement (JKSM) Chairman Altaf Ahmed Bhat expressed profound grief and sorrow over the passing of Sheikh Abdul Rauf, brother of APHC leader Sheikh Abdul Mateen, in Srinagar.
In his condolence message, Bhat extended heartfelt sympathies to Mateen and the entire bereaved family and prayed for eternal peace for the departed soul.
He said the Sheikh family has a longstanding association with the Kashmir freedom movement and has rendered sacrifices and services for the Kashmiri people over generations.
He recalled their father, Sheikh Noor Muhammad, as a pioneering leader of the Kashmir freedom movement who remained actively engaged in the welfare of Kashmiris and devoted a significant part of his life to serving his people.
The APHC chief said Rauf’s death also brings into focus the deep personal pain endured by Kashmiri families divided by the longstanding Kashmir dispute.
For many such families, he said, bereavement is made even more painful when relatives living across the divide cannot reach their ancestral homes in time to see their loved ones for the last time, participate in their funeral prayers or personally stand beside their families in their hour of grief. “There is a particular pain in losing a loved one when circumstances created by a prolonged dispute prevent family members from coming together even for a final farewell.
“To be unable to attend the funeral prayers of your own loved one, offer prayers beside the family or say a final goodbye is a grief that words can hardly describe,” Bhat said.
