Two hardline Hurriyat constituents quit

Two important constituents of the hardliner breakaway All Parties Hurriyat Conference headed by senior separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani parted ways Thursday with the two deserting constituents maintaining that Geelani was impermeable to consultations.

Nayeem Ahmad Khan, the president of the National Front and Dr Gulam Nabi Hubbi, the chief of the split faction of People's Conference, told media persons in Srinagar on Thursday that both were saying goodbye to the APHC headed by Geelani.

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"Our agenda is the resolution of the Kashmir problem and mitigation of the people's sufferings. Geelani Sahib has a global agenda which we cannot support," Khan said.

"Geelani's attitude to politics is dictatorial. He doesn't consult his constituent parties even on the most sensitive issues. Presently he is touring the Jammu region to further the prospects of his own party, ignoring the various constituents of the separatist political conglomerate," Nayeem Khan said.

He, however, added that personally he respected Geelani, but the resolution of the Kashmir dispute needed negotiations based on dialogue and reconciliation.

The two separatist leaders also said that they had supported Geelani in very difficult times in the past like when he opposed the starting of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service or when he declined to visit Pakistan on the invitation of President Musharraf.

"But, now we feel enough is enough," the two leaders said. It must be recalled that two more constituents, namely Anjuman-e-Shara-e-Shian led by Agha Hassan Budgami and the Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement had earlier announced their decision to part ways with Geelani's hardliner APHC.

The two had later joined the moderate APHC group led by Mirwaiz Omar Farooq. At today's press conference, however, Nayeem Khan and Dr. Hubbi did not say anything about their intentions to return to the Mirwaiz led APHC fold which they had deserted at the time of its split two years ago to cast their lot with Geelani.