Hurriyat seminar takes violent turn

Violent clashes rocked the Hurriyat headquarters on Sunday when supporters of rival separatist leaders threw chairs and furniture at each other during a seminar organised on the eve of the death anniversary of Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone.

The violence broke out occurred after senior Hurriyat leader Nayeem Ahmad Khan, addressing the gathering, demanded action against certain leaders (former Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat) for their remarks on the applicability of the UN resolution on Kashmir.

Immediately, one of the men in the crowd started raised slogans in favour of a section of the Hurriyat. Supporters of the rival leaders immediately pounced on him tearing apart his shirt and pinning him down. The situation turned ugly when others joined in and hurled chairs and other furniture at each other.

The seminar was organised in memory of Gani Lone and Mirwaiz Farooq whose death anniversary falls on Monday. Lone was gunned down by militants on May 21, 2002 when he was attending the death anniversary ceremony of Mirwaiz Umar’s father Mirwaiz Mohammad Farooq who was killed by ultras in 1991.

Amid provocative sloganeering, Shabir Shah was escorted to safety by his supporters. “Gani Bhat should either seek apology from people for his comments about UN or Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq should expel him immediately because he has violated the basic preamble of the constitution of the Hurriyat,” Shah said.

Shah later pressed raw nerve of the Hurriyat leadership when he invited other separatist leaders and former militant commanders working outside the ambit of the Hurriyat to join the conglomerate saying “this forum is yours and you should nurture it since you have given sacrifices for the Kashmir cause”.

Another rebel Hurriyat leader Nayeem Khan asked Mirwaiz to start cleansing the Hurriyat from those elements who violate the constitution. He said, “When Abbaas Ansari (former Hurriyat chairman) was suspended from Hurriyat for meeting the Centre’s interlocutors, why can’t the same yardstick be applied for Gani Bhat?”

Tension has been simmering in the Hurriyat ever since Gani Bhat made a statement in Batangoo-Sopore that “the UN resolution on Kashmir may not be implemented in the present circumstances”.  Bhat had later expressed fears that he and another leader, Bilal Gani Lone, might be assassinated.