The Hindu : National : Bus service a diversionary tactic: separatist leaders

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 17, 2005

National

National

Bus service a diversionary tactic: separatist leaders

By Our Staff Reporter

JAMMU, MARCH 16. Separatist leaders in the State have decided not to use the bus service on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road for the time being as it was a "diversionary tactic" from the real political issue.

The chairman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, has opposed the bus service saying it does not address the real aspirations of the people who want a political solution to the Kashmir issue. "Softening the Line of Control is not at all a solution to the problems of the State and it fails to take into account the genesis of the problem." The former chairman of the undivided Hurriyat Conference and Shia cleric, Moulvi Abbas Ansari, has welcomed the bus service. He has in the past asked for permission to go across the Line of Control to start a political process between the leaders of both sides. But on the question of taking the bus, Mr. Ansari preferred to taken an ambivalent stand. "The issue would be discussed in the executive council meeting of the Huriryat." Eagerly awaited for his verdict on the bus service is Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat, who is presently out of the State. Mirwaiz has relatives living in Muzaffarbad, the capital of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and one of his uncles even became President of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in the early 1950s.On several occasions in the past, Mirwaiz has supported the idea of softening the Line of Control.

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