Bhat, Ram meet, no smile even for lenses

The Hurriyat delegation led by its chairman, Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat, spurned a dramatic welcome the kind of which was offered to Shabir Shah last week. Bhat did not even pose with Jethmalani before an array of cameras. When Jethmalani offered to garland him before the cameras Bhat curtly said, ‘‘I don’t wear garlands.’’

Brushing aside requests by the Kashmir Committee members, Bhat rushed inside the house leaving a visibly embarrassed Jethmalani to pose with his other team members for the cameras.

Mirwaiz Moulvi Omar Farooq, Javed Ahmed Mir, Sheikh Ali Ahmed and Khalil Ahmed Khalil were the other members of the delegation. Later, Jethmalani also cancelled the scheduled briefing for the journalists about the meeting.

Sources said that the Kashmir Committee was also trying to arrange a meeting of the Hurriyat leaders with Defence Minister George Fernandes. Sources claimed the Defence Minister, who had earlier agreed to meet the Hurriyat leaders, today conveyed his inability to do so because of his involvement in disinvestment issue.

‘‘He (George Fernandes) had earlier conveyed that he would meet Hurriyat leaders since they were citizens of India,’’ a close aide of Ram Jethmalani said. Earlier, Fernandes had met separatist leader Shabir Shah. Kashmir Committee leaders claimed that Prof. Bhat too had agreed to meet Fernandes.

Meanwhile, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq said that the Hurriyat conference has proposed that the Kashmir Committee hold a dialogue with the Kashmir Committee of Pakistan.

Talks with Ram Jethmalani’s team will continue tomorrow and we are ready to stay in Delhi as long as required, he said.