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Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar
Mohammad Yasin Malik, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman and an executive committee member of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, on Thursday decided to boycott the Kashmir Committee, which is visiting the Valley on Friday.
Malik, who was recently released from prison, issued a terse statement against Ram Jethmalani, who heads the Kashmir Committee, and warned the Hurriyat Conference to see through what he called 'the ulterior motives' of the committee.
Reports said Malik got into a heated argument with other Hurriyat executive members over the separatist conglomerate's decision to continue its dialogue with the Kashmir Committee and walked off in a huff from a recent meeting in Srinagar.
Malik said in his previous four meetings with Ram Jethmalani, the latter was always trying to 'persuade' him to contest assembly election.
The JKLF chairman also took exception to Jethmalani's remarks that every Kashmiri must have some emotional loyalty towards India.
Meanwhile, political observers in the Valley feel Malik is turning out to be quite an embarrassment for the Hurriyat and if the stand taken by him receives support from separatist guerrillas, the Kashmir Committee's future would not be any better than that of K C Pant, whose ambitious exercise to engage separatists into parleys with the Centre had failed.
This, they say, is obvious from recently issued statements by the Hizbul Mujahideen and Dukhtaran-e-Milat welcoming Malik's statements.
Once he widens his tirade against the Kashmir Committee, the observers feel, it would be very difficult for even moderates like Shabir Ahmad Shah, chief of the Democratic Freedom Party, to continue parleys with the committee.
Hizbul Mujahideen supreme commander, Syed Salahuddin, has also issued statements asking the Hurriyat Conference not to engage itself in a dialogue with the Kashmir Committee.
Ram Jethmalani is scheduled to meet Shah on his arrival and will later meet the leaders of the Huriyat Conference before leaving for Jammu to meet Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed.
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