NEWSLINKS US EDITION SOUTH ASIA COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
The pro-Pakistan units in the 23-party Hurriyat Conference are seeking to nip in the bud a growing voice for the participation of the amalgam in the Jammu and Kashmir polls, while its central leadership is under attack from a section for its unilateral moves for dialogue with the Pakistani and Indian leadership.
The general council of the Hurriyat Conference, which met in Srinagar, saw heated arguments between moderates and pro-Pakistan parties over participation in state elections.
Though Hurriyat Conference chairman Abdul Gani Bhat assured the council that the leadership was totally against the polls, senior executive leader Abdul Gani Lone in Hyderabad responded favourably to the prime minister's promise of free and fair elections.
"We believe in the electoral process, as it will enable the people to elect their representatives. But the basic dispute on the finality of the accession has to be resolved first involving the people of Kashmir," Lone said.
He even went a step ahead and said elections were the best way to assess public opinion.
Lone's statement came a day after Bhat and another senior leader Maulana Abbas Ansari categorically rejected any proposal for participation in the elections.
"Fighting assembly elections cannot resolve the Kashmir issue, which is hanging fire for many decades," Bhat said.
The issue of elections was raised at the council by a few workers, whose moderate leanings were well-known, Hurriyat insiders said.
Significantly, though none of the Hurriyat executive member was supposed to speak at the meeting, a message sent by fire-brand Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who was put under house arrest, was read out to the members.
The Hurriyat chairman had a tough time at the meeting, as several representatives of the amalgam criticised his functioning. One of the representatives from a women organisation even demanded his resignation for his failure to raise an effective voice against the alleged growing human rights violations in the state.
The council also came under severe criticism from other parties over the decision of two senior leaders -- Mirwaiz Umer Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone -- to carry out mass awareness campaign in various parts of the country.
PTI
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