Hurriyat averts major crisis

The separatist All Party Hurriyat Conference averted a major crisis yesterday with the 23-party conglomerate changing its decision to expel the People's Conference party after accepting its written explanation that it had no intentions to participate in the upcoming state assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Hurriyat executive council which held several rounds of meetings spread over Sunday and Monday, had earlier made up its mind to expel the People's Conference as a member after four of its senior leaders filed their nomination papers as independent candidates.

In the letter delivered to the Hurriyat leadership, Sajjad Lone, the People's Conference chairman, explained that those who have defied the Hurriyat decision to keep away from the state polls have been expelled from the party and that his party has nothing to do directly or even indirectly with the polls.

Although the letter helped the harried Hurriyat leadership save the situation, since a split in its ranks would have sent out the wrong political signals, there is still no word on whether Sajjad and his brother Bilal will go to the people in north Kashmir and ask the voters to boycott the polls, as being demanded by several constituents of the Hurriyat.

There has been a widespread feeling that the two brothers, who took over the reigns of the party following the assassination of their father and one of the founders of the Hurriyat, Abdul Gani Lone, had encouraged some of their party workers to participate in the polls in a bid to test the waters.

The reprieve, however, seems conditional and may not last long, as the top Hurriyat leadership appear apprehensive of the Lone brothers.

As a first move, the Hurriyat yesterday removed its most known face and its spokesperson in New Delhi Abdul Majid Banday as its spokesperson since he belongs to the People's Conference and replaced him Khalil Mohammed Khalil.

Sources in the Hurriyat say that the truce may not last long as the Peoples Conference is all set to chart out its own separate route in the state politics as Sajjad is uncomfortable with the Hurriyat leadership whom he had in May accused of being behind his father's assassination.

It is also being pointed out that Lone senior was gunned down since he was preparing to take part in the state polls and was opposed to any demand to merge the disputed state with Pakistan, the option majority of the Hurriyat constituents favour.