M A I N   N E W S

Hurriyat splits, breakaway group removes Ansari

Srinagar, September 7
Capping two months of internal squabbling and a war of attrition in public, the Hurriyat Conference, the biggest separatist outfit in Jammu and Kashmir, today split with 13 of its 25 constituents removing its Chairman Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari and replacing him with Masrat Alam as its interim chief.

The 13 constituents, mostly members of Hurriyat general council, met at the residence of hardliner and pro-Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and decided to replace Ansari and suspended the seven-member Executive Committee, the highest decision-making forum of the amalgam.

A five-member committee was formed to review the Hurriyat constitution and suggest necessary amendments to end the “autocratic” decisions taken by the Executive Committee. The committee comprises Alam, Ghulam Nabi Sumjhi, Syedullah Tantray, Ghulam Mohammad Hubbi and Aga Syed Hassan Budgami.

Reacting to the development, Mr Ansari told PTI that those who chose to part ways with the amalgam were “free to do so”. “We will expel them all for breaking the discipline of the amalgam,” he added.

Mr Ansari’s immediate predecessor as Hurriyat Chairman Abdul Ghani Bhatt told PTI from Baramula that the action of the splinter group as “unconstitutional and illegal” and said it ‘probably wanted nothing more than meeting the whims of the malignant and narcissistic leadership’.

He said general council members had absolutely no authority to remove the Chairman.

An emergency meeting of the Hurriyat Executive Committee had been convened tomorrow to discuss today’s developments.

The developments follow a prolonged war of words between Geelani and People’s Conference leader Sajjad Gani Lone on the issue of People Conference’s “proxy” participation in last October’s Assembly elections in the state which was boycotted by Hurriyat.

Geelani, on his release from Ranchi jail early this year, had alleged People’s Conference had taken part in last year’s Assembly elections through proxy candidates. The Jamaat had been seeking the expulsion of People’s Conference from Hurriyat and had abstained from all Hurriyat activities till the party was expelled.

Geelani was backed by many General Council members some of whom were not happy with Ansari’s election as new chairman.

Denying his party had taken part in Assembly polls, Sajjad Gani Lone said there were differences between the Hurriyat and said ‘there is a fight between moderates and hardliners.’ — PTI