Two weeks after meet with Sharma, Bhat-led Muslim Conference splits

Ishfaq Tantry

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, December 10

Barely two weeks after senior Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Bhat held a secret meeting with Jammu and Kashmir interlocutor Dineshwar Sharma, the Muslim Conference headed by him has split, with the rival faction even sacking him from the post of party president.

In turn, Bhat today sacked the Pakistan representative of the Muslim Conference, Manzoor-ul-Haq Bhat, a former militant commander, who was appointed vice-president of the rival Muslim Conference faction, and Mohammad Sultan Magrey, a retired DSP of the Counter Intelligence Department (CID) in the J&K Police, appointed as its interim president for six months.

Bhat, while defending his November 27 meeting with Dineshwar, had told The Tribune in a recent interview that his party Muslim Conference was “pro-dialogue” and that he was “not a saleable commodity”. He had warned of a “nuclear holocaust” if India and Pakistan “failed” to resolve the vexed Kashmir issue.

Following the interview published on December 8, the rival faction sent a written communication on December 9 to chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, informing him that the Muslim Conference had appointed Magray as interim president for a period of six months. Earlier Manzoor had also written a letter to Bhat from Pakistan expressing his reservations about the “secret meeting”.

Citing Bhat’s conversation with Sharma as the reason for the controversy, the letter to Mirwaiz states: “This meeting has created anguish/concern among the Kashmiri nation and the leadership, particularly the joint resistance leadership, and the party activists of the Muslim Conference”.

After the split, Bhat expelled party’s Pakistan representative Manzoor for his “anti-party activities”. In a letter addressed to Manzoor, with a copy to Mirwaiz, Bhat has written: “With regard to your ambition mixed with indiscipline, I, as president, do hereby expel you from the basic membership of the organisation and you shall therefore cease to represent the Muslim Conference in any respect and at any level in Pakistan.” He also expelled Magrey and another party activist Mehrajuddin from the basic membership of the party, sources said.

Bhat has appointed Tanveer-ul-Islam, a former Tehreek-ul-Mujahideen commander, as the Muslim Conference representative in Pakistan.

Continues to be part of separatist conglomerate

Despite the Muslim Conference split, sources said the Hurriyat Conference continues to view Bhat as the Muslim Conference chairman, although it has sought an “explanation” from him with regard to his meeting with Sharma. Sources in the Hurriyat further indicated that the amalgam has been informed by the Muslim Conference that “Professor Bhat did not meet Dineshwar Sharma, though on November 27 two government representatives had come to his residence seeking his meeting with Sharma”.