Search the Internet          Tips

Time for political process to take
over from militants: Hurriyat

The All Parties Hurriyat Conference on Saturday said the militants had "done their duty" and it was now time for the political process to find a way out of the present situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Reflecting the growing clout of moderate elements within the 23-party separatist conglomerate, Hurriyat Conference chairman Abdul Gani Bhat told Star News: "The boys with guns have done their duty, they have done the job by highlighting the movement. Now it is for the politicians to capitalise on it."

In a veiled dig at the firebrand Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's statement that Kashmir was a religious issue, Bhat, himself regarded a moderate, said: "He who talks in terms of religious issues perhaps forgets that if and when the right of self determination is granted to the people of the state, it will be exercised by each one of us irrespective of caste, creed, colour and religion."

Geelani and Bhat have been at loggerheads ever since the latter took over as the chairman of the outfit.

PTI

Tell us what you think of this report