Ahmadiyyat - The Renaissance of Islam — Page 266
266 AHMADIYY AT Kashmir, and not any real desire to serve and promote the interests of the Muslims of Kashmir. They had recourse to devices like picketing, etc. , on the borders of the State and endeavoured to persuade the Muslims of the State to adopt measures that were more spectacular than helpful. They succeeded in persuading some members of the Committee that there should be a change in the presidency of the Com- mi ttee. The Khalifatul Masih had, throughout, been anxious that the presidentship of the Committee should not become a matter of controversy or conflict. He had taken care that nothing should be done that might be relied on to lend colour to anything of the kind to which the Ahrar leadership began to have recourse later. But when he perceived that despite all ,his care the Ahrar leadership was behaving in a manner that could occasion serious prejudice to the interests of the Mus- lims of Kashmir, he decided not to continue his presidency of the Committee beyond the end of the second year. On his resignation Dr Sir Muhammad Ig bal was elected President of the Committee. The Khalifatul Masih directed the Ahmadi workers of the Committee and the Ahmadi lawyers who provided advice and aid free of charge to the Muslims of the State to continue the work in full co-operation with the Committee. But the withdrawal of the Khalifatul Masih from the presidency of the Committee seems to have ex- tinguished the spirit of the Committee and gradually all life departed from it. , On one occasion before his resignation from the presi- dency of the Kashmir Committee the Khalifatul Masih met Chaudhri Afzal Hag, President of Majlis Ahrar at the invi- tation of Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, Chief Minister of the Punjab, who was seeking to bring about an understanding between the Ahrar and the Kashmir Committee. In the course of the conversation Chaudhri Afzal Hag told the Khalifatul Masih that as the Ahmadiyya Community had opposed him in the elections to the Punjab Legislative Coun- cil, the Ahrar had determined to crush the Ahmadiyya