Bhat sacked as MC chairman for meeting interlocutor?

MIR FARHAT

SRINAGAR: Separatist amalgam Hurriyat Conference is rattled by one more split as one of its constituents and former chairman Prof Abdul Gani Butt's Muslim Conference is facing a division after his reported meeting with Dineshwar Sharma, the centre's special representative in November.
Butt, who is the chairman of his faction of Muslim Conference, was removed as president by his party after it appointed Muhammad Sultan Magray as incharge president for six months and Manzoor ul Haq Bhat as vice president on Saturday.
In a letter signed by Magray, he has said that Butt's secret meeting with Sharma has created "concern among people of Kashmir" and it called an emergency meeting to form a new executive body.
However, a day before on December 8, Butt expelled Manzoor ul Haq Bhat as its representative in Pakistan,
In the letter counter signed by Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Butt has said that "I as president of Muslim Conference expel you from basic membership of party in regard to your ambition admixed with indiscipline" and appointed Tanveer-ul-Islam as chief representative in Pakistan.
Though Butt today denied his meeting with Sharma, but sources in Hurriyat told The News Now that the denial by the senior Hurriyat leader is aimed to douse the "anger within the Hurriyat Conference against him".
"Hurriyat leaders including Geelani and Mirwaiz are under immense pressure from the families of jailed Hurriyat leaders arrested by NIA to hold dialogue with Dineshwar Sharma and get their kins released," a source in Hurriyat said.
"But given the political situation created after 2016 unrest, the leaders showed their aversion to dialogue," the source said.
This is the third split in Hurriyat conference since 2002. Hurriyat Conference, which was an amalgam of 26 smaller parties and socio-religious parties formed in March 1993, saw first split on September 7, 2003 when Mirwaiz and Geelani broke off and formed their own factions.
Later in 2014, Mirwaiz faction of Hurriyat witnessed another big division when three leaders, Shabir Shah, Nayeem Khan and Azam Inqulabi parted ways from Mirwaiz and joined Geelani's faction. But Nayeem Khan was also expelled by Geelani after his explosive revelations in media about taking money for creating unrest in Kashmir.
Lately, former JKLF commander and president of his own faction of JKLF, Javaid Mir, also parted ways from Mirwaiz.