The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Tuesday, September 3, 2002, Chandigarh, India

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APHC decides not to suspend People’s Conference
Tribune News Service

A file photograph of Sajjad Lone (Left) with his brother Bilal Lone. — Photo Amin war

Srinagar, September 2
The separatist Hurriyat Conference here today dropped plans to suspend its constituent, the People’s Conference, on the issue of support to some candidates contesting the ensuing Assembly elections in Kupwara district of north Kashmir.

A statement read by a party spokesman at the APHC headquarters after the two-day meeting of its executive council, general council and working committee, said the People’s Conference representative had given an assurance that it would not violate the basic principles of the APHC. He added that the People’s Conference would like other constituents of the APHC to participate in the anti-poll campaign in the forthcoming elections in Jammu and Kashmir.

In its seven-hour meeting yesterday, the members had resolved to suspend the People’s Conference from the APHC, and the decision would be deferred only if it met certain conditions. The conditions laid down by the Hurriyat leadership asked the People’s Conference to prove that it was not involved in the participation of two of its members in the elections. Two candidates — Ghulam Mohiuddin Sofi and Abdul Rashid Mirchal — were among the four candidates allegedly having filed their nomination papers with the support of the People’s Conference, for the first phase of polls in Kupwara district. The APHC also asked the People’s Conference to take action against those who filed their nomination papers and expel them from the basic membership of the party. It also asked the People’s Conference to lead the anti-poll campaign in Kupwara district as already launched by the Hurriyat Conference throughout the valley.

The APHC spokesman also circulated copies of a letter from Sajjad Lone, the People’s Conference chairman and son of assassinated Hurriyat Conference leader Abdul Ghani Lone, resolving to adhere to the basic principles of the Hurriyat Conference, of which it is a basic member. The letter, giving details of the executive meeting of People’s Conference, said the two members, Ghulam Mohiuddin Sofi and Abdul Rashid Mirchal, had been expelled from the party.

Four Independent candidates — Ghulam Mohiuddin Sofi, Abdul Haq Khan, Abdul Rashid Mirchal and Ghulam Qadir Malik — had filed their nomination papers as Independent candidates from the Handwara, Kupwara, Lolab and Karnah constituencies of Kupwara district in North Kashmir on Thursday last. Five Assembly constituencies of Kupwara district along with 10 others in the adjacent Baramula district are going to the polls in the first phase of elections in Jammu and Kashmir on September 16. Four other districts — Leh and Kargil in Ladakh division and Rajouri and Poonch in Jammu division — are also going to the polls in the first phase.

There were reports that the People’s Conference had been supporting the four candidates in different constituencies of Kupwara district. The party faced a virtual split with two jailed leaders, Gulzar Ahmad Gulzar and Dr G.M. Hubbi expelling three members from the primary membership of the People’s Conference. They included Abdul Ghani Lone’s two sons Sajjad and Bilal and Ghulam Mohiudin Sofi. However, People’s Conference chairman Sajjad Lone had criticised the role of the two jailed leaders and described them as playing in the hands of vested interests.