JKLF strikes a different note

By Shujaat Bukhari

SRINAGAR, JULY 11. The All-Party Hurriyat Conference suffered a setback today with one of its constituents - Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) - deciding to boycott the tea party at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi in honour of the President, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, on Saturday. All the seven executive members of the APHC have been invited to the party.

Confirming the decision, the JKLF senior vice-president, Mr. Javed Ahmed Mir, said, ``the stand of the JKLF as a propounder of the cause of people of Jammu and Kashmir is very clear and there can be no compromise on that.'' The APHC, as the basic party to the dispute, should been ready to participate in a significant meeting and a meeting over a cup of tea was of no importance. Criticising the Hurriyat's defence of the invitation for the party, Mr. Mir said, ``when the Government of India invited us for talks we (Hurriyat) rejected it saying unless Pakistan was not involved we cannot enter into a dialogue. But now when Pakistan has accepted the invitation from the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, Kashmiris, the basic party to the dispute, have been ignored.'' ``We have to discuss the Kashmir problem, not sip tea,'' he said. The Hurriyat leaders, he said, had become very vocal in support of the invitation which was nothing but ``rubbing salt in the wounds of bruised Kashmiris''.

Mr. Mir recalled that before the signing of the Lahore declaration, the Hurriyat had resisted the move saying there was no participation of Kashmiris in the process. ``This time they (Hurriyat leaders) are very eager to have tea with the dignitaries. We are unable to understand it.'' Asked whether it would lead to further differences within the Hurriyat, he said, ``the unity is not more important than the sacrifices of 70,000 Kashmiris.''

Meanwhile, the JKLF chairman, Mr. Yaseen Malik, told The Hindu over phone from London that the APHC leaders' decision to attend the tea party would be a clear violation of the Hurriyat constitution. ``The Hurriyat constitution not only has complete Independence as an option but is also committed to tripartite talks on Kashmir.'' He would return to India on July 20 and the matter with all the consequences taken up by the Hurriyat executive.

In another development, the Awami Action Committee of Mirwaiz Umer Farooq strongly denied that the Hurriyat Conference had suffered a split. The AAC general secretary, Mr. G. M. Bhat, said a report in this regard was baseless and concocted.

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