The statements made by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders since their arrival in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir on Thursday have only added to the already existing confusion about the objectives of their visit.
Most people here expected the visiting Hurriyat leaders to speak the language of Pakistan, but they, or at least some of them, have chosen to speak in the same vague language in which public-political discourse are conducted in both India and Pakistan.
Also see: Hurriyat leaders arrive in Islamabad
The Hurriyat began distancing itself from Pakistan and Pakistan-sponsored militants in 2000. The final rupture came in September 2003 when Pakistan encouraged some of the hardliners to split the conglomerate and form a new alliance under the leadership of Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
Pakistan instantly recognised the breakaway faction as the real Hurriyat and the names of other, more moderate, Hurriyat leaders disappeared from and pro-jihad press in Pakistan.
However, the Hurriyat faction led by Geelani failed to leave a mark on political landscape in Kashmir, forcing Pakistan to lean back on the Hurriyat's moderate group.
The visiting Hurriyat leaders have been repeatedly asking for two things -- an end to the violence in the Valley and the inclusion of Kashmiri representatives in the dialogue process between India and Pakistan. However, it remains undefined as to who do they want to end the violence -- the militants or the Pakistani government?
It is no secret, and certainly not to the Hurriyat leaders, that most of the violence in Jammu and Kashmir today is being perpetuated by Pakistan-based militant groups such as the Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Hizbul Mujahideen. Indigenous Kashmiri militants play a minor role, if any, in planning and executing attacks.
The Hurriyat Conference delegation is yet to define how the people of Jammu and Kashmir can be a part of the ongoing dialogue between India and Pakistan. Neither India nor Pakistan is as yet ready to sit with the so called representatives of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and discuss what is essentially a territorial dispute between the two countries.
In fact, the only reason why both India and Pakistan agreed to let the Hurriyat leaders visit PoK perhaps was to create an illusion of Kashmiri people's participation in the dialogue process.
The Hurriyat leaders seem to be out of synch with the mood in PoK.
It was embarrassing for his hosts when former Hurriyat chief, Abdul Ghani Bhat, reminded his audience in his address to the members of the 'Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly' on Friday that Mirwaiz Umer Farooq had lost his father and uncle, Bilal Lone his father, and he himself his brother in the violence. Though he stopped short of naming the killers, all those present knew the assassins were trained and armed in PoK.
There are people in PoK who will soon ask the same question that Geelani's is reported to have raised recently -- why aren't the Hurriyat leaders demanding the withdrawal of armed forces from Kashmir?
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