Geelani busts Hurriyat's unity plan

Dashing all hopes of unity, the breakaway All Parties Hurriyat Conference faction on Thursday said it does not want to have anything to do with the APHC faction now led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq.

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Speaking to correspondents in Srinagar, the chairman of the breakway faction, Syed Ali Shah Geelani said: "My doors for the leaders of Hurriyat faction are closed," he said.

The Mirwaiz, a former APHC chairman, returned to the helm of the separatist conglomerate after Moulavi Abbas Ansari resigned from the chairmanship of the organisation on Wednesday.

Ansari's resignation was seen as an attempt forge unity in APHC.

Geelani, however, said he did not leave APHC because of Ansari. "It (Ansari) was never the issue," he said.

Asked if Ansari's resignation had anything to do with his meeting with Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokar recently, Geelani said: "I do not know what he [khokar] told them. He did tell me to work for unity, but I told him that we follow a definite criteria -- anything that is detrimental to [the Kashmiri freedom] movement is not tolerable..."