Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on Kashmir tour on Thursday.
When he landed at the Srinagar airport, he was greeted by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Minister of State in the PMO Jitendra Singh and his team of senior officials along with state Chief Secretary A Dullu, Director General of Police RR Swain, besides army, civil and military personnel. Other senior officials of administration and police were also present.
Among those people was a 60-year-old man, whom the Prime Minister was not only happy to meet but also stopped by and inquired about the well-being of him and his family members.
When the Prime Minister started returning from Kashmir after the day’s program, he met that person at the Srinagar airport. This time Prime Minister Modi told him: “Azad Saheb, your hard work has paid off. “A lot of people came to the party.” The officers were surprised to see who this person was?
Who is Ashraf Azad?
The 60-year-old man, wearing a black kurta with a white beard and a saffron colored bandi, had a tricolor turban on his head and a BJP belt on his shoulder.
This person named Ashraf Azad is an old friend of PM Modi. Azad is a resident of Hakarmulla village of Budgam district. Long before becoming PM and CM Narendra Modi And there is friendship between them. Modi has also visited his village and house.
How did friendship happen?
In January 1992, on the occasion of Republic Day, Narendra Modi along with the then BJP President Murli Manohar Joshi had reached Lal Chowk in Srinagar to hoist the tricolor.
In those days, Kashmir was burning in the fire of violence and terrorism. Then a 26-year-old youth associated with extremist organizations came to Lal Chowk with curiosity to see who is the one who is adamant on a suicide mission, risking his life, in this era of terrorism.
That person was Mohammad Ashraf Hazam alias ‘Azad’. He then met BJP leaders at Lal Chowk. After this, he also went to a guesthouse in Chashma Shahi and met BJP leaders.
Later BJP leaders (Narendra Modi) called Azad to Delhi and made him meet Atal Bihari Vajpayee. A few months later, when Narendra Modi again reached Srinagar, Azad hired a private taxi and drove it himself to take Modi to his village in Budgam district.
Traveled from village to village of Kashmir for 10 days
Azad then hosted Modi at his home in Hakermulla near Soibugh, the village of Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin.
Then Modi and Azad visited every village in all the six districts of Kashmir for about 10 days without any security. According to Azad, Modi was then on a BJP-RSS mission but had presented himself as a human rights activist.
Kashmir’s independent journalist Ahmed Ali Faiyaz, while mentioning that tour in his social media post, has written that while going to the villages and talking to the Kashmiri people, Modi then talked to the people about their political aspirations, social and economic issues, development, history etc. I used to ask different questions. Modi used to write the answers of the people of the valley in his notebook. After this Azad joined BJP and till date he is continuously associated with the same party.
According to Faiyaz, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Azad met again at Srinagar airport during the Lok Sabha election campaign in February 2019, both the friends remembered their old days.
On Thursday, both the friends met again at Srinagar airport and inquired about each other’s well-being. At the airport, PM Modi introduced Azad as his old friend.