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| Moderate Umar Farooq drops the brick | | Musharraf isn't thrilled by Geelani-led hardliners | | BL KAK
NEW DELHI | JAN 20
Maulvi Umar Farooq, one of the juniormost separatist leaders of Kashmir, has successfully egged Pakistan President, Gen. Parvez Musharraf, on to avoid attaching more-than-necessary importance to the obdurate secessionist hardliner, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, and his followers in Kashmir. Gen. Musharraf's "cordial" interaction with the moderate Maulvi Umar Farooq and other senior leaders of Kashmir's Hurriyat Conference in Islamabad on Friday (Jan. 19) significantly took place barely 24 hours after his stern warning to clerics in Pakistan not to encourage religious extremism and fanaticism.
True, Gen. Musharraf's line of thinking in relation to anti-India Muslim hardliners in Kashmir is different from the one he has in relation to Islamic militants and jehadis in his country. But the fact that he has not appreciated a set of utterances of Syed Ali Shah Geelani in recent times has been borne out once again by his (Gen. Musharraf's) acceptance of the representative character of the Hurriyat Conference headed by Maulvi Umar Farooq. Yet another factor which has not been liked by Gen. Musharraf relates to Geelani's continuing unwillingness to follow Islamabad's advice for "a united Hurriyat Conference" in Kashmir.
At a time when Geelani-led rebels and hardliners seem keen on continuance of unrest and violence in Kashmir, Maulvi Umar Farooq, soon after he set his foot on Islamabad on Jan. 19, called for giving up armed struggle to pave the way for fruitful negotiations for "a lasting settlement" of the Kashmir dispute. His call came after a series of meetings, including crucial talks with Gen. Musharraf, he and his Hurriyat colleagues had in Islamabad. The Hurriyat leaders' meeting with Gen. Musharraf was described by Pakistani media as "a fresh effort" to push forward the thre-year-old peace process between India and Pakistan.
Pakistan's influential English publication, Dawn, quoted Maulvi Umar Farooq as telling a dinner meeting with the Prime Minister of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), Attique Khan: "Peaceful negotiations are the only way out. We have already seen the results of our fight on the political, diplomatic and military fronts which have not achieved anything other than creating more graveyards". The Maulvi's message of significance: "Some people involved in the struggle could still have some reservations, but as far as the APHC (All Party Hurriyat Conference) is concerned, we are not prepared to sacrifice any more of our loved ones".
Equally important was the Maulvi's yet another message: With his Hurriyat Conference's new strategy they would convince India to arrive at a more agreeable settlement. This message found a forceful expression after Gen. Musharraf had reportedly advised Maulvi Umar Farooq and his associates to keep open doors of talks with the government of India. Clearly, Gen. Musharraf's pro-dialogue advice runs counter to the anti-dialogue noises by Syed Ali Shah Gelani and his camp.
The meeting, in fact, attained a lot of significance because soon after their arrival in Pakistan, the APHC leaders had declared that their separatist organisation and the majority of Kashmiris living on the Indian side of the divide supported President Musharraf's four-point settlement formula for Kashmir. The meeting largely focused on President Musharraf's proposals which include self-governance, demilitarisation and joint control of the "disputed" territory.
Conscious of the expected opposition to such a settlement from hardline groups, Gen. Musharraf, according to the Dawn newspaper, called for discouraging elements hostile to the peace process. As the meeting between the Pakistani leader and APHC delegation was taking place, hundreds of jehadis and their supporters from the hard-line Islamic groups took to the streets in Islamabad, denouncing any attempt to compromise on Pakistan's long-standing position on Kashmir.
Earlier, in a meeting with the APHC leaders, PML chief, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, was quoted as saying: "Time has come for a bold decision, even if it is an unpopular one". He said that "at this crucial moment in history" there was no time to remain bogged down in a debate on the UN resolutions. The PML leader added:
"Resolution or no resolution, now all sides need to consider what was in the best interest of the Kashmiri people, and then push for a settlement of the dispute".
APHC leader Abdul Ghani Bhatt on the occasion said that there was little room to include the Kashmiris in the negotiations between India and Pakistan. "These talks are taking place between two sovereign states, and ours is just a disputed territory", the veteran Kashmiri leader was quoted as saying. "So, instead of creating problems, we think our purpose is solved by separately holding negotiations with both India and Pakistan", he said. However, Bhatt was quick to clarify that these were his personal views, and not those of the APHC. |
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