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| Mirwaiz lieutenants again in the eye of a storm Efforts underway to isolate Prof Gani, Bilal Lone, Abbas Ansari, Fazal Haq | | |
AHMED ALI FAYYAZ
SRINAGAR, Nov 15: Much like last year’s turbulence on controversial allotment of land to Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board, faces of moderate politics in the Kashmiri separatist camp are once again being isolated not only by Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference but also by many in Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s own conglomerate. Obviously encouraged by the space created by Omar Abdullah-led coalition government for Mr Geelani, pro-unification leaders like Shabir Ahmed Shah and Nayeem Ahmed Khan have begun efforts to neutralize the Hurriyat (M) foursome---Prof Abdul Gani, Bilal Gani Lone, Maulana Abbas Ansari and Fazal Haq Qureishi---amid speculations of Mirwaiz joining a dialogue process and “secret diplomacy” with New Delhi and Islamabad for working out a resolution of the Kashmir crisis.
With the mercury dipping fast, summer capital has suddenly become venue for hot political activity of the separatist camp. In the past three days, equal number of day-long conferences have been held here on the role of “resistance leaders”---a phrase coined by a section of media for the politicians struggling for Kashmir’s separation from the Indian sovereignty. Even as representatives of almost all the separatist outfits are being invited by the organizers, hardliners like Geelani and Dukhtaraan-e-Millat chief, Asiya Andrabi, besides President of High Court Bar Association, Mian Abdul Qayoom, are invariably the star speakers.
Asiya has launched fresh tirade against Mirwaiz, alleging that the young separatist leader was going to take the Pakistani leadership into confidence so as to get Islamabad’s approval to New Delhi’s plans on Kashmir. According to her, Mirwaiz had set off with an Indian agenda.
One more platform came handy today on occasion of the 4th day ceremony of Prof Ghulam Mohammad Sheikh who passed away last week. Speaking in the well-attended condolence meeting, Geelani announced that a major conference would be organized on the campus of University of Kashmir on occasion of Chehlum (40th day ceremony) of late Prof Sheikh. Laying emphasis on more public support to his current campaign against demilitarization, Geelani made it clear that the Kashmiris had just one goal---Azadi barai Islam---and, according to him, there was “absolutely no scope” for secularism in the “freedom movement”.
Strongly dismissing New Delhi’s latest offer of talks with the Kashmiri leadership---received enthusiastically by major mainstream parties as also a positive nod from Mirwaiz---Geelani asserted that implementation of the UN resolutions was the “one and the only one solution to the Kashmir dispute”. At all of his gatherings in the last few days, Geelani has repeatedly suggested that with his tacit approval of Home Minister P Chidambarm’s offer of bilateral dialogue, Mirwaiz had violated not only the Hurriyat’s birth day rider but also an agreement signed by leaders of the two factions in June 2008. According to him, Mirwaiz had accepted in black-and-white that his faction would not participate in any bilateral dialogue process with India or Pakistan.
In his keynote address at a seminar organized by his political outfit Muslim League, former Hizbullah commander Mushtaq-ul-Islam made a frontal attack on the Hurriyat (Mirwaiz) leaders----Prof Bhat, Bilal Lone, Maulana Ansari and Fazal Haq---with the allegation that their activities were harmful for the “freedom movement”. Dukhtaraan chief, Asiya Andrabi has expressed identical views in a couple of these conferences and asked for isolating the “traitors”. Architect of last year’s unification process of the Hurriyat factions, Shabir Shah today thundered at Muslim League seminar that it was “high time to identify and isolate the traitors”.
In his obvious attack on the Mirwaiz lieutenants, Shabir Shah did not name any “traitors” but asserted that there was “absolutely no scope of any quiet diplomacy or bilateral talks” in the Valley’s separatist camp. He claimed that New Delhi’s and Omar Abdullah-led coalition government’s latest refrain of dialogue with the Kashmiri leaders was “patently contrary to the Hurriyat constitution and last year’s agreement between two factions of the amalgamation. Informed sources insist that some constituents of Mirwaiz-led Hurriyat were in full agreement with the views being publicly expressed by Mr Geelani and constituents of his alliance.
Even the separatists, who have maintained neutrality and have stayed away from joining either faction of the conglomerate that split in 2003, have begun to lend support to Geelani’s ideology. Significantly, Jamiat Ahle-Hadith chief Maulana Showkat---commonly known as Yasin Malik’s friend and Geelani’s detractor---today said at the two-day conference of his organization that there was no point in participating secret diplomacy or bilateral talks. Using Geelani, Asiya’s and Shabir Shah’s phraseology verbatim, Maulana Showkat dismissed the UPA government’s offer of Delhi-Srinagar talks as a “completely futile exercise”.
Stressing on Pakistan’s participation and making it a tripartite process, Maulana Showkat asserted that the Kashmir problem’s solution lay in nothing but implementation of the UN revolution. According to him, people of the state should be given right of self-determination, asking them whether were for accession to Pakistan or India.
Mirwaiz has, meanwhile, attended a meeting with the Pakistani High Commissioner at New Delhi, raising speculation of his visit to Islamabad in a few days. His faction of the Hurriyat is meeting here on Wednesday next to select the leaders of Mirwaiz-led delegation. Playing down frontal attacks from the radical camp, Mirwaiz has not so far defended his colleagues who chose to remain in oblivion during last year’s Amarnath turbulence.
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