Attack on leader strains Hurriyat unity

While they may be trying to whip up a fresh azadi groundswell, separatists in Kashmir are struggling with unity in their ranks.

While they may be trying to whip up a fresh azadi groundswell, separatists in Kashmir are struggling with unity in their ranks.

The grenade attack on the residence of the Hurriyat Coordination Committee member Maulana Showkat Ahmad has put the severest strain so far on the newly forged separatist coalition, with JKLF supremo Yasin Malik saying that his outfit would 8220;independently8221; investigate it and then take action. 8220;Whether it is a state or any group, we will publicly expose the culprits once we find them,8221; Malik said at a hastily called press conference here on Wednesday.

He added that the Hizbul Muslimeen, the group which owned responsibility for the attack, lacked conscience and courage. 8220;This group of impostors cannot browbeat us,8221; Malik said. In a hint at political adversaries, he added that if the hand of some other outfit is revealed, the JKLF would not take it lying down. 8220;Some people who indulge in these dirty actions have already been identified in past, but we tolerated it in the larger interest of the Kashmir cause. This time we have decided we will not take it any longer.8221;

Maulana Showkat, a moderate head of the puritanical religious group Jamiat Ahle Hadees, is close to Malik and is a member of the separatist coordination committee given the charge of chalking out protest programmes after the Amarnath land row. One of the largest religious organisations in the Valley, the Ahle Hadees owns around 500 mosques and claims a membership of seven lakh people.

Maulana Showkat however had recently drawn severe censure for being the only religious leader in Valley to have exhibited a soft spot for former governor S K Sinha. Showkat had not only backed Sinha in the setting up of a Sharda Peeth University in Valley but also sought his help in the establishment of an Islamic university in the state. Malik has also been pilloried by hardline separatists before for his 8220;Gandhian8221; mode of struggle.

The attack on Showkat is being seen as a fallout of the divide over the method of leading the secessionist surge in the Valley, and while Malik may have stayed well short of finger-pointing, his outburst brought into sharp relief this rift.

Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani, however, played down the incident. 8220;We have ideological differences but we have resolved them in the larger interest of the movement. Nothing can drive us apart,8221; he told The Indian Express.

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According to him, the attack on Showkat8217;s residence was the handiwork of government agencies. 8220;India has the resources, media to assault us from many sides. But we are conscious of this and will, God willing, successfully negotiate these challenges.8221;