The efforts to forge unity among the various Kashmiri separatist groups received a jolt after hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani rejected the unity move of the moderate, All Parties Hurriyat Conference on Wednesday.
The moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference today rejected Centre's latest initiative on Kashmir, saying it was 'disappointing' as it reflected lack of willingness to meet the aspirations of the people.
The hardline Hurriyat Conference on Saturday rejected Centre's eight-point formula to de-escalate the current turmoil in Kashmir terming it as an "eye wash" even as other separatist outfits maintained a studied silence.
Separatist leader and Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (G) Syed Ali Geelani has urged people to actively participate in the Census to put an end to the much-talked about demographic supremacy of a particular community, the daily Rising Kashmir has reported.
A day after an all party delegation reached out to separatists in Kashmir, moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference on Tuesday accused the Centre of not making a serious effort to address the Kashmir issue saying talks were not possible in a coercive atmosphere.
All Party Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has claimed that he was placed under house arrest minutes after his meeting with the all-party delegation at his residence in downtown Srinagar.
Owaisi said, 'Srinagar is a ghost town. Yeh kya kar diya hai (What have they done)? The people are very angry. It moved us to see that people were searching for milk. We were told that since last three months children were not going to school, medicines or proper food have been in short supply. They said they were being tormented.They can't bear the torture of their youth."
Hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani dropped plans to stage protest marches to army and other security forces camps here on September 21.
Police blamed activists of hard line faction of Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Muslim league headed by underground separatist leader Masrat Alam Bhat for carrying out the incidents of arson as part of a pre-planned conspiracy to disrupt Eid celebrations.
The NIA is also probing all angles of the funding of separatist leaders.
Ahead of the meeting with his Indian counterpart, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Saturday said New Delhi should engage itself in talks to resolve the Kashmir issue."We hope New Delhi will realise the ground reality and world trends which essentially include negotiations and talks on resolving outstanding issues," he said. Qureshi was addressing a press conference after his meeting with All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
A senior Hurriyat leader has created a flutter by saying that two separatist leaders and his brother were killed by "our own people" and not security agencies, prompting Jammu and Kashmir government to term it as a "late admission" and a call for a probe to fix responsibility.
Hurriyat Conference on Friday voiced its dismay at India and Pakistan not making much headway at the talks between their foreign ministers, saying the outcome has left people in the Kashmir valley "disappointed."
A mob set a school bus on fire in Khanyar area of Srinagar on Saturday, official sources said. A group of people stopped a bus belonging to a private school near Rangerstop in Khanyar area on Saturday morning and asked the driver and students to get off. They set the bus on fire.
At least five persons were injured in fresh clashes between youths and police following an attempt by activists of a women separatist organisation to take out a march in defiance of curfew orders in Srinagar, officials said.
The strike called by the two groups of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference brought in a complete shutdown and undeclared curfew in the Valley on Monday, a day after violence left one person dead and over a dozen people injured in police firing Srinagar.
"A permanent Security Council seat in the UN for India means a major injustice, which has no moral ground. How will such a country (India) be made a permanent member, when it has not honoured the body and rejected its resolutions on Kashmir," Chairman of the hardline faction of Hurriyat Conference Syed Ali Shah Geelani said.
Kashmir remained the biggest hurdle in relations between India and Pakistan and it should top the agenda of any talks between the two countries, moderate Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said on Friday.
Leaders of the pro-dialogue moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference including the conglomerate chairman, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, were placed under house arrest on Thursday by the authorities in Srinagar to thwart the proposed march and sit-in by them on World Human Rights Day.Almost all the senior separatist leaders of the moderate group, including Mirwaiz himself, professor Abdul Gani Bhat, Shabir Shah, Naeem Ahmad Khan were placed under house arrest.
Fifteen people have been reported killed after a passenger bus fell into a gorge in Reasi area of Jammu district
There were no restrictions on the movement or assembly of people anywhere in the Valley.
With educational institutions all set to reopen on Monday in Kashmir Valley, the hard-line faction of the Hurriyat Conference, led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, on Sunday asked parents not to send their wards to schools and colleges. "No right thinking person can deny the importance of education in society, but to think that they (government) are concerned about the future of our children is like a mad man's dream," Geelani said in a statement.
Life in entire Kashmir Valley was thrown out of gear on Friday following a separatist shutdown and incidents of violence those left 14 persons including six cops wounded.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday welcomed the likely Centre-Separatist dialogue to be held away from media glare.
Separatist groups in Kashmir on Thursday reacted angrily to the death sentence awarded to two locals, who were held guilty by a Delhi court in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case, in which 13 persons were killed.The moderate and hard-line groups of the separatist conglomerate All Parties Hurriyat Conference, headed by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq and Syed Ali Shah Geelani respectively, have called for a protest shutdown on Friday against the death sentence.
Curfew remained in force in Kashmir Valley for the 11th day on Wednesday even as the death toll in the ongoing agitation rose to 104 after a youth succumbed to his injuries in a hospital in Srinagar.
In a bid to break the current impasse, teams of the all-party delegation to Kashmir on Monday separately met Hurriyat leaders and gave them a patient hearing but the separatists insisted on withdrawal of Army and asked the Centre to take bold decisions instead of being in a "denial mode".
The Indian Army on Thursday asked Kashmiris not to pay heed to the call given by hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani to march towards the security forces' camps in the Valley on September 21 to press for demilitarisation of the state.
Hardline Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on Tuesday said the all-party meet in New Delhi is unlikely to help improve the situation in the Kashmir Valley as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech did not touch on the core issue of Kashmir.
The hard-line faction of the Hurriyat Conference led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani has issued a curious 11-day protest schedule asking people of Kashmir to carry out normal activities from dusk to dawn on strike days. As per the schedule, only two days -- September 19 and 22 -- have been exempted from strikes and protests by the Geelani-led Hurriyat faction, which is spearheading the ongoing agitation in the valley.
Life in Kashmir was in Tuesday paralysed in view of a strike called by the hard-line separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani against the conviction of six Kashmiris in the 1996 Lajpat Nagar bomb blast case in New Delhi.
The Jammu and Kashmir Police have registered a case against Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference, over burning of government properties by a mob during a protest rally in Srinagar, official sources said. An FIR was registered against the Mirwaiz at Shergarhi police station in Srinagar city under sections 121, 121-A, 153, 153-A, 336 and 446 of the Ranbir Penal Code (RPC), the sources said.
"Kashmir is an issue concerning the people living in five regions -- three under Indian control and two under Pakistani control. The state should be united as it existed on August 14, 1947 and its people decide the future," Mirwaiz said addressing the congregation at Jamia Masjid in Srinagar.
Curfew was on Friday lifted from Anantnag after four days even as life returned to normal in the Kashmir Valley after hardline Hurriyat Conference suspended protests for the day, the last Friday of Ramzan.
Rejecting Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari's statement that Kashmiri militants are terrorists, separatist leaders in the Kashmir Valley said he was 'ignorant about the sub-continent's history'.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Tuesday met Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, who had also met Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi earlier. Pakistani officials said that during the 30-minute meeting, Farooq briefed Zardari about the All Parties Hurriyat Conference's perspective of the ground realities in Kashmir.Earlier, the Pakistan foreign minister met Farooq, ahead of his meeting with his Indian counterpart S M Krishna on Monday.
Pakistan has assured that it would not put the core issue of Kashmir on the backburner, chairman of the Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umer Farooq said on Friday.
Seven members of the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference general council have quit the conglomerate over differences with the top leadership on "restoration of the Hurriyat constitution".
Curfew was on Friday clamped in Bandipora and Kupwara districts and Sopore town in Kashmir in view of a call given by separatists to hold demonstrations to protest the killing of several youth during clashes with security forces in the last one month. The decision to impose curfew in Bandipora and Kupwara districts and Sopore town was taken in view of the decision by the hard-line faction of the Hurriyat Conference to hold demonstrations in all district headquarters.
In a crackdown on separatists, the Jammu and Kashmir police on Thursday arrested over 70 people, for allegedly funding and fomenting trouble in the state.With a near curfew-like situation prevailing in the Valley after the death of a boy on Sunday, a major crackdown began in the wee hours of today morning when separatist leaders Shabir Shah and Nayeem Khan were arrested. Additional police forces were deployed outside the residence of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
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