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Hurriyat lobs ball back in Centre's court

Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar

The separatist All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, by naming its delegation to visit Pakistan, has thrown the ball back in the Centre's court.

At a meeting of its executive council at the Hurriyat headquarters in uptown Rajbagh, Srinagar, the APHC stamped its approval on a list of five members nominated by chairman Abdul Gani Butt to visit Pakistan on January 15. Butt had earlier been authorized to select the team.

The team comprises Jammu & Kashmir People's Conference president Abdul Gani Lone, firebrand Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Awami Action Committee chief Moulvi Omar Farooq, Shia leader and Ittehadul Muslimeen head Moulvi Abbas Ansari and People's League chairman Sheikh Abdul Aziz.

The Centre now has to decide whether it will allow all five members to go to Pakistan. So far it has refused to issue passports to at least two Hurriyat executive members, Geelani and Aziz, both of whom have been included in the team to Pakistan.

Addressing a crowded press conference after the meeting, Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front chief Mohammad Yasin Malik said, "We hope the Government of India will see to it that the peace process is not jeopardized and the Kashmir dispute is resolved."

Geelani and Lone did not attend Thursday's meeting. Lone is away in New Delhi for a medical check-up, while Geelani was admitted to hospital in Srinagar after he took ill.

"We all will go by the decision of the APHC chairman regarding the nomination of the members. Our agenda is too clear to need repetition," Malik said.

Lone's inclusion in the team is significant. The People's Conference leader has been under fire from various Pro-Pakistan militant groups for his utterances against foreign militants.

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