Hizb wants a full Hurriyat team

ISLAMABAD, DEC. 31. The pro-Pakistan militant outfit, Hizb-ul- Mujahideen, has insisted that if all the seven executive council members of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference did not travel to Pakistan it would be an ``exercise in futility''.

``If some (leaders) are allowed and some are barred (from travelling to Pakistan), it will create doubts about the Hurriyat. Rather, it can create an impression that the alliance is divided into moderate and extremist people,'' the Hizb's supreme commander, Syed Salahuddin, said in an interview to The Dawn newspaper.

Mr. Salahuddin's remarks come in the wake of reports that the travel documents to Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a hardliner in the APHC, were not being issued by New Delhi.

``I will advise the (Hurriyat) leaders to avoid a visit to Pakistan unless all of them are allowed to travel. And if all of them get permission, then they should first sit together and evolve an agenda in consensus with each other for the tour,'' Mr. Salahuddin said.

Our headache: Umar

In Srinagar, senior Hurriyat leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, said the Centre should issue passports to all the seven executive council members and leave the composition of the team to the Hurriyat.

``It is our headache who will go and who will not go,'' the Mirwaiz told a foreign radio network. ``Nobody has a right to decide on our behalf.''

Lashkar man admits to massacre

NEW YORK, DEC. 31. A Pakistani militant, arrested in connection with the March massacre of 35 sikhs in Chattisinghpura in Kashmir, has admitted to being a member of the attackers' team and his affiliation to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba outfit, a media report said here today.

Suhail Malik of Sialkot, interviewed by a New York Times correspondent in an Indian prison, said he had no regrets for participating in the massacre, which coincided with the five-day visit of the U.S. President, Mr. Bill Clinton, to India from March 20.

Malik said he had opened fire because he had been ordered to do so.

- PTI

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