SRINAGAR: Pro-Pakistan Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani hosted an Iftar party for moderate Hurriyat chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and JKLF chairman, Yasin Malik, at his Srinagar residence, in what is seen as an attempt to unite the disarrayed Hurriyat Conference.
The get-together, second of its kind after the 2010 unrest in Kashmir Valley, assumes significance in the backdrop of warming up of relations between India and Pakistan and the backtracking by the state government led by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on the promise of engaging Hurriyat leaders in talks.
A senior Hurriyat leader said the effort to unite different factions of Hurriyat Conference has the backing of Pakistan. "We have to put up a joint face to make ourselves heard. A united Hurriyat will thwart any ulterior motives of the oppressors to sow seeds of discord in our society and pro-freedom leaders," he said.
Putting up a united face, Geelani, Malik and Mirwaiz broke the fast together at the former's Hyderpora residence following which a resolution was passed against the "increase" in human rights violation in J&K after the PDP-BJP government assumed office in March this year.
The resolution says a "long term agitation" will be launched if the "atrocities" by the state government do not stop. "The resolution was passed against numerous incidents of human rights violation with killings, harassments and crackdowns becoming an order of the day," a middle-rung Hurriyat leader, who participated in the Iftar party, said.
Senior Hurriyat leaders, Shabir Ahmad Shah and Nayeem Khan, were missing from the party as they are under house-arrest. The resolution condemned their detention as "barbaric". "A long-term agitation will be launched against Mufti Sayeed-led RSS government," the resolution says.
The Iftar party comes ahead of Mirwaiz's invitation to all separatist groups for a joint rally on Martyrs Day which is commemorated every year on July 13. Significantly, there is no routine strike call on July 13. Instead, the Hurriyat has called for a rally from Jamia Masjid to Naqshband Sahib after afternoon prayers.