APHC suspends office bearers over dialogue stance

Following recent serious differences that have surfaced in the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference over the issue of 'quiet dialogue' with the Centre, an extraordinary meeting of the conglomerate decided, on Monday, to suspend the party's office bearers and keep the various committees in suspended animation.

The seven-member APHC executive met in Srinagar on Monday and empowered the chairman Mirwaiz Omar Farooq 'to take immediate steps to consolidate the separatist conglomerate and till such time all the office bearers of the group as also the various committees have been suspended'.

"The meeting authorised the APHC chairman to take steps ensuring that none of its members issued divergent statements, thereby violating the conglomerates constitution," a statement issued by the group said.

The meeting also 'issued instructions to the groups executive and general council members not to issue any statements which according to them were violative of the APHC constitution'. The general council members have recently been voicing reservations about the efficacy of the 'quiet dialogue' between the central government and conglomerate.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram had spoken of 'quiet diplomacy and dialogue with separatists away from media glare to make it result oriented' during his recent valley visit.