PM has vision, is weak like me: Bhat

Bhat said Hurriyat was aware that it would be a difficult process. ‘‘We knew this would entail problems. Whenever our efforts to initiate a meaningful process to resolve the problem reach a decisive stage, the saboteurs come into action,’’ Bhat said.

He, however, refused to divulge any more details about the political process which includes an effort at different levels to persuade India and Pakistan to get to the negotiating table.

‘‘The way Yasin Malik was forcibly picked up in the middle of a press conference and subsequently subjected to third-degree torture shows a pattern in their vendetta which was repeated when Abdul Gani Lone was physically assaulted while talking to the media in Jammu, in full gaze of policemen,’’ Bhat said.

When asked who the Hurriyat considered the villain in all this, he said they they were the hawks on all sides.

However, he did make an indirect reference to Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah when he said ‘‘he wanted to urge the people who rule Kashmir that coming down heavily upon them (Hurriyat leaders) was not in their own interest’’.

Bhat said the Hurriyat was making all efforts to narrow down distances and create bridges to bring India and Pakistan closer to each other. ‘‘Now is the time for all parties to realise that it is not just the future of Kashmir but the future of the entire region that’s at stake. The armies of the two countries are standing eyeball to eyeball and even an accident could lead to an absolute disaster,’’ he warned.

Rejecting Hurriyat participation in the coming elections, Bhat said the answer to the Kashmir dispute did not lie in the assembly. ‘‘We do not want to install anyone or replace Farooq Abdullah because it will not solve the problem.’’ He, however, refused to say whether the separatist conglomerate would launch an anti-election campaign or not.

Bhat said the Hurriyat leaders had planned to organise a symbolic hunger-strike to express solidarity with Yasin Malik today but called it off after he broke his fast.

‘‘They have hit Yasin on the head so hard that his ear, which was recently operated upon in the US, has been damaged. We are apprehensive that a politically motivated campaign has been let loose which includes physical liquidation of the Hurriyat leaders.’’

Responding to a question about the actual purpose behind the visit of a group of Kashmiri lawyers, which includes two second-rung leaders of the Hurriyat, to Pakistan, Bhat said it was to attend a lawyers’ conference. ‘‘They are still in Pakistan. If they indulge in any activity which goes against Hurriyat’s policy, we will take disciplinary action against them,’’ he said.