Sheikh Mushtaq
SRINAGAR, Jan 15 (2007): Suspected Muslim militants threw a grenade near the house of the leader of Kashmir’s main separatist alliance on Monday but no one was hurt, Indian police said.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, was not at home when the grenade exploded in Kashmir’s main city Srinagar.
Farooq was due to travel to Pakistan later this week at the head of a Hurriyat delegation to hold talks with leaders and Kashmiri politicians from that side of the divided territory, a move that has been criticised by hardline separatists.
“We know the people behind this attack. They don’t want a peaceful resolution of Kashmir problem,” Farooq told Reuters.
Farooq, who is also Kashmir’s chief Muslim cleric, has also initiated a dialogue with New Delhi to try and resolve the 17-year revolt against India’s rule in the region.
“The policy of coercion and intimidation is not going to hold us back from finding a peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue,” said Farooq.
After the grenade blast, Farooq’s supporters, shouting “Long live Umar”, burnt tyres and stoned vehicles.
No guerrilla group claimed responsibility for the explosion and the largest Kashmiri group, the Hizbul Mujahideen, condemned it. “Whatever has happened is wrong,” said Ehsan Elahi, a Pakistan-based spokesman for Hizbul.
Kashmir’s hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, backed by most militant groups, has called for a strike on Jan. 17 to protest against the planned Hurriyat visit to Pakistan.
Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan, has been the cause three wars between the neighbours.
Indian officials say more than 40,000 people have been killed in the revolt in Jammu and Kashmir.
Farooq’s father was shot dead by unidentified gunmen in 1990, a few months after the revolt against Indian rule broke out. He was Kashmir’s chief cleric at the time.
