Srinagar, Jun 16: Hurriyat Conference (M) chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Wednesday called on chairman Hurriyat Conference (G), Syed Ali Shah Geelani, at Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) Soura to enquire about the health of the ailing separatist leader.
 Sources said the two had a 10-minute meeting in the hospital. Confirming the meeting, Mirwaiz told Greater Kashmir that he had gone to the hospital to enquire about the health of Safakadal youth, Muhammad Rafiq Bangroo, injured in CRPF action three days ago.
 “I also called on Geelani Sahab and enquired about his health. It was just a courtesy call,” he said.
 Geelani’s spokesperson, Ayaz Akbar also confirmed the meeting. However he said, “It was purely a courtesy call and there was no politics in it.”
 Sources said Dukhtran-e-Milat chief, Syeda Asiya Andrabi, was also present when Mirwaiz called on Geelani.
 The chairmen of two factions of the Hurriyat met two months after Geelani rejected a unification move made by the Mirwaiz. In April, while rejecting unification proposal, Geelani told a two-member committee instituted by the Mirwaiz: “We don’t want any confrontation, but we would follow our own agenda and you should follow your own.”
 The two leaders had last time met face-to-face in September 2008 during a meeting of Coordination Committee, which was spearheading Amarnath land row agitation and its aftermath. However, Geelani and Mirwaiz exchanged pleasantries on March 23, 2010 at Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
 Pertinent to mention that another senior Hurriyat (M) leader, Nayeem Ahmad Khan,had called on Geelani in the hospital on Tuesday.
 Mirwaiz and Geelani had met at the latter’s Hyderpora residence on June 19, 2008 after about five years of their estrangement. The marathon 6-hour meeting had culminated on a significant note with both the leaders jointly briefing the media and announcing the formation of a committee to hammer out the modalities for unification of the two factions, which had parted ways in 2003 over engagement with New Delhi.
 The leaders of the two factions had signed a joint document spelling out their resolve to evolve a joint mechanism to further strengthen the struggle for achieving the right of self-determination and to work out the modalities for total unification.  On unification between the two factions, a 6-member committee had been formed to discuss the modalities for unity.
 Immediately after the meeting the two Hurriyats jointly launched a campaign against the transfer of 800 kanals of forestland to Shri Amar Nath Shrine Board. The subsequent economic blockade of Kashmir forced all the separatist forces in Kashmir to come under one platform –Coordination Committee – and till October 2008 all the programmes were being announced jointly by Hurriyats and the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front.
 However, after the arrest of most of the separatist leaders before November 2008 Assembly elections, unity efforts received a jolt.
 A senior political expert while commenting on the latest initiative said, “The human rights violations and the Armed Forces Special Powers Act provide common ground to the two leaders to join hands and unite.”
 Meanwhile, Hurriyat (M) held a special session of executive council of the conglomerate on Wednesday and came down heavily on the government over the mounting “human rights abuses” in the state.
 “We ask international bodies working on human rights issues to look into how new generation of Kashmiris is being annihilated in a systemic manner,” Mirwaiz told GK after chairing the meet.
 “Killings in Kashmir should be tried under war crimes to restore sense of security in Jammu and Kashmir. The army has developed a vested interest in staying on in Kashmir,” he added.
 Reacting to Army’s Northern Command chief Lt Gen BS Jaswal’s statement that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act is a holy book for the forces deployed in militancy-hit states he said, “Kashmir belongs to Kashmiris and those laws which are unacceptable to them can’t be implemented here.”
 The meeting was attended by Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, Bilal Gani Lone, Moulana Masroor Abbas Ansari, Musadiq Adil, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza and Ghulam Muhammad Nago.

Lastupdate on : Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 16 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 17 Jun 2010 00:00:00 IST