Hurriyat undecided about team

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR, JAN. 2. The All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) executive today authorised its chairperson to constitute the delegation scheduled to visit Pakistan on January 15. The forum also described the ensuing elections to the panchayats as a move to sabotage peace process.

After a marathon six-hour meeting of the executive chaired by Prof. Abdul Gani Bhat, the Hurriyat spokesperson, Sheikh Abdur Rasheed, told reporters that the issue of constituting the delegation was discussed. Since the Government had not lifted restrictions on the travel of all the seven executive members, it was unanimously decided to authorise the chairperson to select the members of the team as and when needed, he said. At the end of the day, the Hurriyat remained undecided about its team.

The meeting was attended by all other six executive members - Syed Ali Shah Geelani (Jamaat-e-Islami), Mr. Abdul Gani Lone (People's Conference), Mohammad Yaseen Malik (JKLF), Mirwaiz Umar Farooq (Awami Action Committee), Moulvi Abbas Ansari (Ittehadul Muslimeen) and Sheikh Abdul Aziz (People's League).

The Hurriyat in its last executive meeting had decided to send a delegation to Pakistan to interact with the militant leadership there and the Pakistan Government to take the peace process ahead.

However, a senior Hurriyat leader, Mr. Abdul Gani Lone, on Monday said he would not be part of the delegation. Mr. Lone, who was recently in Pakistan, also had a dig at pan-Islamic militant organisations: ``If somebody wanted to unfurl their flag on the Red Fort or the White House, Kashmir should not used as a platform for that.'' It was an obvious reference to outfits such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba which recently attacked the Red Fort.

No to panchayat polls

The Hurriyat spokesperson said the panchayat elections, slated to begin from January 15 in Kupwara district, were also discussed. ``It was felt that the proposed process of election was aimed at sabotaging the peace process in the State,'' he said.

Significantly, the Hurriyat said: ``Only time will tell to what extent the Centre is involved in it,'' which was a clear reference to the Chief Minister, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, who initiated the exercise of panchayat polls on his own.

The Hurriyat asked people to boycott these elections as has been done in the past. Today's meeting was held at the APHC headquarters in Rajbagh where a clash had taken place between pro-independence and pro-Pakistan supporters on December 17. The venue was shifted to Mirwaiz House for the December 21 meeting in order to avoid such clashes, but today's venue was the Rajbagh office again.

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