Kashmir: Funeral prayers in absentia for Sheikh Osama

SRINAGAR, May 7: Large number of people offered funeral prayers in absentia (Gaibana Nimaz-e-Jinaza) for Osama bin laden at  a number of places in Kashmir valley after Friday prayers today, reports Kashmir Times (6/5)

The appeal for the prayers was made by Syed Ali Shah Geelani chairman Hurriyat Conference (G) yesterday. He himself participated in the Gaibana Nimaz-e-Jinaza at Batamaloo in which large number of people participated.

Senior Hurriyat (M) leader and president of Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) Shabir Ahmad Shah also joined the Gaibana Nimaz-e-Jinaza of Osama  at Saraibala Srinagar.

Reports of offering prayers in absentia were also received from other parts of Srinagar city including Samandar Bagh,, Nowhatta, Shalimar, High Court Complex, Iqbal Park areas. The prayers were also offered at Sopore, Anantnag, Kulgam, Bandipora Shopian and Baramulla.

Addressing people in Batamaloo, Geelani said that Osama achieved martyrdom while fighting against the tyranny of American and its allied countries.

“Osama bin Laden left his entire wealth and joined the Jihad against the policies of America and its allied countries as they started killing Muslims in the world. He (Osama) did not tolerate the American terrorism and started fighting against it. He (Osama) and his supporters are well wisher of the Muslim world and it is the responsibility of the Muslim world to respect his martyrdom,” he said.

The Hurriyat Conference (G) chairman also said that burying the body of Al-Qaeda leader in sea has exposed the real designs of the Americans and its allied countries against the Muslims.

“Throwing a body of a Muslim in sea under mysterious circumstances is against the Muslim values. These kinds of actions will only increase hatred towards America among Muslims and it will intensify resistance against that country,” he said.

Describing Muslims as the peace loving people in the entire world, the Hurriyat (G) chairman said, “Every Muslim loves peace, every Muslim wants prosperity but if they fight against the tyranny of government atrocities they should not be called as terrorists  From Palestine to Kashmir, from Iraq to Afghanistan, people are fighting against polices of the government and foreign aggression. The struggle of Muslim in these countries and other parties of the world will succeed one day as the entire Muslim world is supporting their cause,” he said.

Geelani maintained that Osama was representing right thinking which opposes the foreign occupational forces and gave up his life of comfort to fight for their cause of ending foreign occupation. Earlier, Geelani was placed under house arrest and later released.

The Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) leader Shabir Ahmad Shah after joining the Gaibana Nimaz-e-Jinaza of Osama at Saraibala addressed the people and  said he was one among richest man in the world.

“He (Osama) left his wealth and joined the jihad against those countries, who had started terrorism against the Muslim. His mission was to end foreign occupation of America in entire world. The policies of America and its allied countries are being criticized all around the world as is being treated as anti Muslim. One day the supreme sacrifice of Osama will achieve the result and foreign occupation will end,” he said.

Shah also said that Osama was the well wisher of the people of Kashmir and people of Kashmir will remember his sacrifices for ever.

Later, after the Gaibana Nimaz-e-Jinaza  anti- America demonstrations were held at various places. The protesters later dispersed peacefully, however, stone pelting started in Batamaloo area after the demonstration.  Cops resorted to lathi-charge.

"Osama bin laden still alive"

NEW YORK | Wed May 4: Almost immediately after the United States said it had killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, the conspiracy theories started.

Even some relatives of the Sept. 11 victims of the 2001 attacks on America say his death, announced by President Barack Obama in a speech at the White House, begs questions.

The U.S. government said Bin Laden was shot in the head when elite Navy SEALS stormed his compound on Monday after he had evaded a decade-long manhunt as the world's most wanted man.

But his swift burial at sea, in which he was slipped into the Arabian Sea in a weighted body bag, and authorities' reluctance to release pictures of his corpse have been fuel for the conspiracy theorists.

One hotly argued assertion is that bin Laden was in fact a CIA stooge who had been dead for years, a fanciful figure who was used to justify America's war in Afghanistan.

That is a position shared by U.S. anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and other doubters from Indiana to Kabul.

"If you believe the newest death of OBL, you're stupid," Sheehan wrote on her Facebook page.

Sheehan, who set up an anti-war camp at President George W. Bush's Texas ranch in 2005, disputes the facts given by the government, asking how the United States could get such fast DNA results, why the burial was hasty and why no video had been released.

And, she noted, the late Pakistani President Benazir Bhutto claimed in 2007 that bin Laden was already dead.

Sheehan is not alone in posing such questions.

Internet site Yahoo said searches for "osama bin laden not dead," "osama bin laden still alive" and "bin laden not dead" spiked off the charts on Monday.

Men were most likely to think he may be alive, Yahoo said, adding that searchers of "bin laden conspiracy" were mostly from Oregon, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Indiana and New Jersey.

In Iran, the semi-official Mehr news agency declared: "The death of Osama is a lie."

Iranian state television news said by disposing of the body at sea, "the mystery (of his death) has increased." Iranian media say the myth of bin Laden has been used to justify the U.S. occupation of its neighbor, Afghanistan.

Nearly 3,000 people died when planes hijacked by bin Laden's al Qaeda followers flew into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11, 2001, setting off a hunt for the plot's architect.

Afghanistan's Taliban said in a statement posted on their website that talk of bin Laden's death was "premature" and that the United States had not provided "convincing evidence."

ELVIS AND ALIENS

Some Americans thrive on conspiracy theories. Who really shot President John F. Kennedy? Elvis Presley lives! Did aliens land in a UFO in Roswell, New Mexico? Was Sept. 11 orchestrated by U.S. interests to justify the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq?

At New York's "Ground Zero" where the twin towers once stood, some visitors pondered whether bin Laden's death might be too good to be true.

"I just hope we really did get him. They buried him at sea. Who knows what happened?" said project manager Sal Leto, 59.

Retired teacher Joani Ellingson, 62, who was visiting from Minnesota, said: "It is part of the death culture that we want to see proof positive. We have a curiosity."

Rosaleen Tallon, whose brother died in the attacks on the World Trade Center, said she was "dismayed" that bin Laden was buried so quickly.

"It has unfortunately opened this up to the possibility of conspiracy theories," she said.

At Pace University, political science professor David Caputo asked students if they doubted bin Laden was dead. Two thirds had at least a slim doubt, and 5 percent had a major doubt, he said.

(Additional reporting by Ramin Mostafavi in Tehran and Edith Honan in New York; editing by Christopher Wilson)