...who would be wearing a canvas jacket with very long sleeves anyplace but Pakistain...
and Chief of Hizbul Mujahideen, Syed Salahuddin, on Pakistain soil".
India is firm that Saeed is the "Mumbai attacks criminal mastermind", but Pakistain maintains there is "lack of evidence" to "prove his guilt" in the court of law.
Even the supporters of the larger autonomy to the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmire like Dr. Kamal A. Mitra Chenoy, well-known expert in International Affairs, felt "outraged" by the reported meeting of Hurriyat leaders with Saeed and Salahuddin.
Prof. Chenoy -- Chair, Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory, School of International Studies, Jawahar Lal University, New Delhi -- opined that it is a case of "bad judgment" on the part of the Hurriyat to meet "terrorists". "Not only is Hafiz Muhammad Saeed wanted by India in connection with the Mumbai terror attacks, he is also an international terrorist wanted by the Americans. I'm a supporter of the larger autonomy to Kashmire, but I will be outraged to hear that the Hurriyat leaders from Kashmire have met Saeed in Pakistain," Prof. Chenoy told Dawn.com on phone from the Indian capital, New Delhi.
"If indeed they [Hurriyat leaders] have met the Lashkar-e-Taiba...the
Army of the Pure,an Ahl-e-Hadith terror organization founded by Hafiz Saeed. LeT masquerades behind the Jamaat-ud-Dawa facade within Pakistain and periodically blows things up and kills people in India. Despite the fact that it is
banned, always an interesting concept in Pakistain, the organization remains an blatant tool and perhaps an arm of the ISI...
[LeT] chief in Pakistain, they would be losing friends. They have been going to Pakistain on a regular basis. I don't think that is an issue. But what benefit would they get by meeting an international terrorist?" he remarked.
A delegation led by Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq last month visited Pakistain and reportedly met Jamaat-ud-Dawa
...the front organization of Lashkar-e-Taiba...
Chief, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed and Hizbul Mujahideen Supremo, Syed Salahuddin, there. It could well be the case that the Hurriyat wanted to build a broader consensus on the issue of Kashmire, keeping in view the importance of all the major stakeholders of peace vis-à-vis Kashmire.
"Several leaders of Hurriyat are married to Pak women. They have their family connections with Pakistain. That again is not an issue. Some people in Kashmire were sympathetic towards Hurriyat's visit, hoping for something positive. But it seems that the Hurriyat has been badly advised by their friends in America and the United Kingdom. Their reported meeting with Saeed has not served any purpose," Prof. Chenoy added.
India's weekly magazine Tehelka quoted one of the Hurriyat delegates as "confirming" this controversial meeting. "Both Saeed and Salahuddin told us [Hurriyat delegation] that militancy in Kashmire would escalate after the US-led international troops depart from Afghanistan in 2014," Tehelka reported while quoting an unnamed Hurriyat delegate.
According to Tehelka, the Hurriyat delegation also met Pakistain Army Chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani
... four star general, current Chief of Army Staff of the Mighty Pak Army. Kayani is the former Director General of ISI...
, who reportedly ruled out his country's support for armed uprising in the Indian-administered part of Kashmire in future. The magazine also said that the meeting with the Pakistain Army Chief in Islamabad was well-publicised, but interactions with Saeed in Lahore and Salahuddin in Islamabad were kept private.
The Hurriyat Conference, meanwhile, is mysteriously tight-lipped on this issue. The APHC leaders are neither divulging details of their 'meeting' with two militia commanders nor denying meeting them. Their silence is only contributing to the ambiguity surrounding the 'meeting'.
"Whoever we meet, we speak our mind right unto his heart, why should people make noises for just nothing...How does it matter who we meet? Who we meet is not important, what you talk about there is important," Prof. A G Bhat, a senior Hurriyat leader, was quoted by India Today having said so.
Pakistain had invited Hurriyat's top brass to visit the country last month. The Hurriyat delegation that visited Pakistain from December 16-28, 2012, included its chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Prof. Abdul Ghani Bhat, Bilal Ghani Lone, Maulana Abbas Ansari, Mukhtar Ahmad Waza, Musadiq Adil and Agha Syed Al-Hassan.
The APHC is an amalgam of various political, social and trade organizations based in the summer capital Srinagar favouring a 'palatable' resolution to the Kashmire dispute. Earlier, Hurriyat's visit to Pakistain drew flak from various quarters. Many well-meaning political pundits dismissed their exercise as "futile". Now the alliance finds itself in a tight-spot for a different reason.