Aziz returns from Pak. amid drama

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR, MAY 23. Police fired in the air and burst teargas shells at Lal Chowk here to disperse a procession protesting the ``arrest'' of senior All-Party Hurriyat Conference leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, who returned from Pakistan today. A few hundred Aziz supporters had arrived in a number of vehicles at the Airport Road to receive him, but were denied entry by police and asked to ``go back''.

Mr. Aziz was reportedly taken into custody soon after he landed at the Srinagar airport and was not allowed to meet his supporters. As news of the arrest spread, the procession moved towards Lal Chowk, heart of the city, waving Pakistani flags and raising pro-Pakistan and pro-Lashkar-e-Taiba slogans - `Jeeway jeeway Pakistan' `Lashkar ke mujahidou ham tumharay saath hain' (Long live Pakistan; We are with you, mujahideen of Lahshkar).

Police stopped the processionists and asked them to disperse. They, however, resisted and police resorted to lathicharge, used teargas and fired in the air.

Shopkeepers downed shutters and ran helter-skelter. Pitched battles continued for some time and a few activists were arrested.

However, police denied that Mr. Aziz was arrested and said he had reached his Pampore residence to which he was escorted. Mr. Aziz, who spent over two months in Pakistan, has been very critical of India and the security forces.

With a red carpet welcome there, he also rejected the `third option' for Kashmir, to which JKLF reacted strongly. Both Mr. Aziz's People's League and the JKLF are constituents of All-Party Hurriyat Conference.

Hurriyat in a fix

NEW DELHI, MAY 23. Sharp differences have surfaced again in the All-Party Hurriyat Conference over backing the demand for accession of Kashmir to Pakistan.

After its executive member, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, on a personal visit to Pakistan, went public propagating accession to Pakistan, former Hurriyat chairman, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, said, ``These can be his personal remarks and the Hurriyat's agenda is not confined to this.''

He said all the three options - accession to India or Pakistan, or Independence - were open for the people of Jammu and Kashmir. However, Mr. Aziz, who returned from Pakistan after meeting Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and other top-ranking officials, defended his stand that Kashmir's accession to Pakistan was inevitable.

``I have not said anything wrong. Kashmir's fate would be completed only after it is annexed to Pakistan,'' Mr. Aziz told PTI on his return.

This statement further fuelled the infighting among the Hurriyat constituents.

The JKLF leader, Mr. Javed Ahmed Mir, said Mr. Aziz had been sent to Pakistan to attend a family function and not to indulge in making statements on the future of Kashmir.

There was a feeling in the Hurriyat that his statement might cause further setback to the possibility of its delegation visiting Pakistan for talks with the Government there and the militant leadership to facilitate a dialogue on Kashmir.

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