SRINAGAR: Three days back Mirwaiz tweeted wishing “best of luck” to Pakistan. His tweet triggered some momentary controversy as well.
“As we were finishing taraweeh, could hear the fire crackers bursting, well played team #Paksitan. Best of luck for the finals! (sic)”, Mirwaiz wrote on micro-blogging site Twitter. That was when Pakistan won the semi-finals.
On Sunday when Pakistan won the finals, he was under house arrest. During the day, his party had condemned his “house arrest” saying the cleric is being prevented from discharging his social and religious responsibilities. He was supposed to address a religious gathering in Lal Bazaar, the statement.
But even Mirwaiz did not know what will happen.
At around 11 pm, a crowd of almost 300 youth assembled at his high-walled iron gate. They had come all the way from Rajouri Kadal with the fire crackers in vehicles including a few SUVs. For 15 minutes, they burst the crackers and danced at separatist slogans.
Finally, the Mirwaiz was compelled to come out. Though under house arrest, he was literally asked to come out and scale the wall and talk, briefly, to the cheering crowd. He spoke from the wall of the gate with no security detail around. Before parting ways, he requested the crowd to return home and stay safe. He thanked the youth for driving all the way from Rajouri Kadal to see him at 11 pm in the night.
Police that was deployed around, exhibited restraint and avoided coming in the way of the crowd. This saved the situation from any clash.
(Photo used in this story has no direct relevance to the event)
