Prof Ghani: Shabir Shah a Non-Entity
Srinagar- The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leadership is not willing to respond to the moves initiated by the Democratic Freedom Party Chief Shabir Ahmed Shah, for bringing about an 'issue based unity' among various separatist groups in the state.
Commenting on the reported unity moves initiated by Shah a senior APHC leader, Prof. Abdul Gani Bhat said, "We do not accept any mediation or unity bid initiated by Shah who had years ago quit the APHC. We treat him as a nonentity because he could not hold together his own Peoples League which he had founded."
The APHC leader said. "We all are united as far as the agenda for peaceful and durable settlement of the Kashmir issue is concerned, adding "We may differ on the methodology for finding a solution to the Kashmir issue. We may differ as far as our organisational activities are concerned but the agenda for resolving the Kashmir issue to the satisfaction of people of the valley is the same.”
When reminded that some separatists were for accession to Pakistan and other for outright independence, Prof. Ghani said "We are for a solution that fulfils the aspirations of people of the state. We neither support Kashmir's incorporation with Pakistan nor Azadi but a solution that is acceptable to the majority of people of the state."
It is pertinent to mention here that Shabir Shah had ‘recently stated that he was trying to bring about an "issue based” unity among various pro-freedom groups. He had said “I am for bringing these groups on one platform so that our claim to represent people of Kashmir looks credible," he was quoted as saying.
However, both the DFP Chief and the APHC leader agree on the reasons for not accepting invitation to the third roundtable conference which was held in Delhi recently under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
Both of them agree on the need for a separate dialogue with separatists so that some viable solution could be debated and once the contours of those solutions were defined the same could be discussed with Islamabad and in the roundtable conferences.