Hardliner Takes Hurriyat Helm
Move underway to heal APHC splits
AFP, Srinagar
A top hardliner in Indian Kashmir was reappointed yesterday as head of a separatist group as efforts got underway to ease a split among leaders opposed to Indian rule in the Himalayan region. Syed Ali Geelani, who wants Indian Kashmir to join Pakistan, was in September 2003 declared head of a breakaway hardline faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, an alliance of some two dozen separatist groups. But his party, Jamaat-e-Islami, immediately said Geelani had retired and refused to take sides in the split of the Hurriyat. A two-day meeting of Jamaat-e-Islami that concluded Sunday decided to revoke the retirement. "The political wing of Jamaat-e-Islami has been revived and Syed Ali Geelani appointed its head," a party statement said. Hardliners had opposed moderate separatists' decision to hold first-ever talks with the Indian government on ways to resolve the dispute over Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region which is divided with Pakistan. The hardliners last year expressed no confidence in Hurriyat head Molvi Abbas Ansari, a moderate Shia cleric. Ansari stepped down last month to pave the way for the reunification of the Hurriyat. However, a separate split emerged Monday when former rebel commander Javed Mir announced he was forming a new party, the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Forum, after leaving the pro-independence Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) last month. Mir told reporters his party would strive for an independent, reunified Kashmir. Mir was among a dozen Kashmiris who in 1988 launched the insurgency against Indian rule in Kashmir that has since claimed tens of thousands of lives. He gave up violent tactics after his release from jail in 1996.
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