{"id":8538,"date":"2017-01-10T09:48:36","date_gmt":"2017-01-10T04:18:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kashmir.today\/?p=8538"},"modified":"2017-01-10T09:48:36","modified_gmt":"2017-01-10T04:18:36","slug":"separatist-prof-abdul-gani-bhat-pays-tribute-friend-mufti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/?p=8538","title":{"rendered":"Separatist Prof Abdul Gani Bhat pays tribute to \u2018friend\u2019 Mufti"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Srinagar:\u00a0<\/strong>In a tribute to former Chief Minister and founder of the ruling PDP Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on his first death anniversary, senior separatist leader and former Hurriyat Chairman Prof Abdul Gani Bhat has said Mufti died while serving people and he believes that he died a pleasant death.In a six-page tribute, which has been published in the \u201cSheeraza\u201d of the J&amp;K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, highlighting the contributions of Mufti, the separatist while quoting Persian mystic Moulana Rumi, writes: \u201cThe beauty of living lies in dying, which you can recognise only at death. If you die serving your people, alleviating the pain of people, your dying will be pleasant. More pleasant than the pleasant mornings of spring.\u201dComparing Mufti\u2019s death in this backdrop, who he addresses as \u201cMy friend\u201d, Bhat writes, \u201cMy friend Mufti Mohammad Sayeed chose to take stock of the projects under construction in Srinagar from morning till evening towards the end of his life. He fell in the evening and never got back to Srinagar alive. He died while serving and I believe he died a pleasant death. God bless him.\u201dRecalling his school and college days, Bhat says he made friends with Mufti when both of them were on the cusp of puberty and had enrolled for further studies in Srinagar\u2019s SP College. He added that they first met in the Barbar Shah locality of Srinagar.\u201cHum dono gaon say taluq rakhtay thay. Mera taluq Kamraz say tha aur unka taluq Maraz say tha aur hum yamraz mein jama ho gay\u201d (We both hailed from villages. I was from Kamraz \u2018north Kashmir\u2019. He was from Maraz (south Kashmir) and we both met in Yamraz (central Kashmir Srinagar).\u201cMufti Sahab was bigger, bulkier and probably a shade more impressive than me. But, let me go on record that in all humility that I would never disappear in his shadow,\u201d Bhat said.Revealing the level of the relationship, both of them shared, the Hurriyat leader writes that he shared a personal relation with the former Chief Minister, not the political as many would like to believe, adding that Mufti, who hailed from Bijbehara town in south Kashmir, used to visit his Botengoo village in north Kashmir\u2019s Sopore area.\u201cI also used to visit Mufti\u2019s home on his invite, when the Mufti household used to prepare fish and vegetable,\u201d Bhat writes.\u201cBefore he (Mufti) took over as CM, he would always call me for such feasts. He would occasionally give me a ring for a meeting during his Chief Ministership but I would not oblige. I never saw him at his home in his position as Chief Minister of J&amp;K,\u201d Bhat further revealed.Describing Mufti\u2019s traits, Bhat writes, \u201cHe was never quarrelsome. He could laugh away opposition or perhaps ignore it silently.\u201d\u201cThe truth is that we were two bodies but one spirit,\u201d Bhat writes while describing his friendship with Mufti, adding that \u201cHe has left, but I am still alive. But till my last breath I would keep on paying tributes to him.\u201dBhat writes that despite belonging to two opposite political thoughts and camps, both of them never allowed the \u201cnegativities\u201d to influence their friendship.Bhat also recalled his visit to Mufti\u2019s town during campaigning for the Muslim Muttahida Mahaz &#8211; the united front of \u00a0Kashmir\u2019s politico-religious parties that took part in 1987 Assembly elections.\u201cI believed that if Mufti would not support us, he would also not oppose us,\u201d Bhat writes while recalling his election campaign in Mufti\u2019s town in 1987 when Mufti headed Congress in J&amp;K.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Srinagar:\u00a0In a tribute to former Chief Minister and founder of the ruling PDP Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on his first death anniversary, senior separatist leader and former Hurriyat Chairman Prof Abdul Gani Bhat has said Mufti died while serving people and he believes that he died a pleasant death.In a six-page tribute, which has been published [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8540,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-union-territory"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kashmir.watch\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}