SRINAGAR: The Kashmir separatist leaders invited for the Foreign Ministers summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) at Sana, the capital of Yemen, are sending representatives in Pakistan to the meet. Hard-line Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani has been sidelined ostensibly on the Pakistan Government's advice.

The chairman of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has deputed a three-member team comprising Ashraf Saraf, Yusuf Naseem and Fayaz Naqshbandi. Though the Mirwaiz has an Indian passport and goes out to attend conferences on Kashmir, this time he has chosen to send a delegation. He said that he had engagements here.

Democratic Freedom Party president Shabir Ahmed Shah has also given his mandate to his Muzaffarabad-based lieutenant Mehmood Ahmed Sagar. A former Peoples League leader, he migrated to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and is involved in "running [the] Kashmir movement."

Mr. Shah who was refused permission to visit PoK with the Hurriyat delegation apparently on mentioning his nationality as "Kashmiri," said that he may not be given travel documents.

"Paucity of time"

Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik has nominated his Islamabad-based associate Altaf Qadiri. "Mr. Malik is not in a position to attend because of preoccupations and paucity of time," a JKLF spokesman said here.

However, sources said the Government was not in favour of another high profile visit of Hurriyat leaders outside the country, due to the controversy that erupted over their recent visit to Pakistan.

The visit was seen as a violation of understanding between India and Pakistan over the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service. The former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee's letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is said to have played a major role in the rethink on the free movement of the separatist leaders.

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