Hurriyat hawks flap their wings

Contrary to this stand is that of hardliner and staunch pro-Pakistan leader and Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat who has welcomed the Ramzan ceasefire. Bhat, who had been in the Geelani camp and was even elected as Hurriyat Chairman with his support, is now rubbing shoulders with moderates, JKLF Chairman Yasin Malik, former chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Abdul Gani Lone.

In fact, apart from Lone who is in Pakistan, all the other leaders supporting the ceasefire are camping in Delhi. Malik even publicly praised Vajpayee for his initiative and compared him with the former Israeli prime minister who talked peace with the Palestinians.

Bhat says the Hurriyat needs to break the ice. “We have to give peace a chance. And if India backtracks, they will be exposed. We cannot say no to ceasefire. We cannot doubt the intentions without putting them to a test,” Bhat told The Indian Express.

Geelani, however, says: “The movement is going through a crucial phase so we have to be careful. We must look for a permanent solution and not temporary peace.”

Another Hurriyat executive and chairman of the pro-Pakistan People’s League Sheikh Abdul Aziz echoes this. “Peace will come only when the basic Kashmir dispute will be resolved. Ceasefires have not taken us anywhere in the past so we must be careful. We have seen the ceasefires of 1947, 1965, 1971 and even the recent one.”

“If the entire Hurriyat leadership, including me, chant Hindustan Zindabad (long live India) here, even then nothing is going to change on ground. Permanent resolution of the problem as per the wishes of the people is the only way out,” he said.

Bhat has been pleading with the Centre to allow a few Hurriyat leaders to visit Pakistan. His proposal of the Hurriyat talking to both India and Pakistan after splitting the seven-member executive into two groups of three and four respectively is seen as an alternative to the tripartite dialogue demand of Pakistan.

“We should be given an opportunity to travel to Pakistan to exercise a peculiarly delicate mission of convincing the mujahideen leadership to reciprocate the India’s ceasefire,” Bhat said. “We will ask them about their apprehensions. We will tell them that he entire world community was observing it. Let us give peace a chance and whichever party backtracks will get exposed,” he said.

Geelani, however, is strongly opposed to anything less than tripartite dialogue involving Pakistan. “I want the Hurriyat constitution should not be violated at any cost. Our constitution puts first priority on the resolution of Kashmir dispute through United Nations resolutions or then through tripartite dialogue including Pakistan, India and representatives of Kashmiri people,” he said.