Divisions beset parties in Kashmir

By Iftikhar Gilani

NEW DELHI: The parties struggling for the liberation of Held Kashmir are divided into factions and every outfit has two or more heads. They are engaged in a battle of wits against each other, with every faction trying to outwit the other.

Surprisingly, all claim to be fighting for a common cause with only minor differences. There are two People’s Leagues, three Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Fronts, two Muslim Conferences, two People’s Conferences, two Muslim Leagues, two Islamic Students’ Leagues, two Democratic Freedom Parties and so on. Earlier, the All Party Hurriyat Conference used to shield all of them. But now it too stands divided. Most puzzled in this factional jigsaw these days are foreign diplomats. “It is confusing to make out who represents whom and what,” a New Delhi-based Western diplomat told Daily Times.

The defections are not confined to political entities alone. Even the trade union and employees’ federations stand divided. The Hurriyat’s woes started last March when its former chairman Syed Ali Geelani arrived in Srinagar after being released from jail. He was angry that the coalition had not campaigned in the last assembly elections and not taken action against the People’s Conference, which reportedly dummy candidates in several constituencies in Kupwara district. Forest Minister Ghulam Mohyuddin Sufi, Mr Geelani believed, is still an active member of the People’s Conference. Recently he ordered ministry vehicles to ferry people to Sajjad Lone’s convention in Srinagar. As the Hurriyat refused to discuss the issue, Mr Geelani at first threatened to form a separate party. His lieutenants became engaged in consultations and even started framing the constitution for a united Islamist party.

Suddenly 13 members of the General Council (GC) passed a no confidence motion against Chairman Maulana Abbas Ansari and elected the comparatively unknown Masat Alam as its chairman, he later he resigned in favour of Mr Geelani. It is believed that someone guided the GC members to stall Mr Geelani’s attempts to form an all Islamic party because it would have handicapped Pakistan to support his faction. Except Fazal Haq Qureshi, almost all the active members of the council have backed Mr Geelani. At the forefront were those who had been declared rebels by their own parties. That some of them have been recently released from various jails has added a new dimension and many eyebrows are raised over who engineered the split. Though Pakistan and the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) has recognised Mr Geelani’s faction as the real Hurriyat, he has not been able to muster support even from his own Jamaat-e-Islami party. Its Majlis-e-Shoora is still trying to unify the Hurriyat, which Mr Geelani is ruling off and on. Surprisingly, he has also received flak from an ultra hardliner Aasiya Andrabi, leader of the Dukhtaran-e-Millat, for taking leadership of a forum which has among it “leaders pursuing secular and irreligious politics.”

Islamist groups were planning to rally behind Mr Geelani to form a cohesive party. But events guided by hidden secret hand foiled their attempts to form a religious alliance on the lines of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal in the Pakistan.

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