SRINAGAR: Representatives of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference were very much present during a meeting of the joint advisory council that framed its first protest programme to demand the body of Afzal guru on Monday.
Abdul Ahad Parra, general secretary of Muslim League, which is a part of the Hurriyat led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, said there had been a communication gap between various leaders of the faction and clarified that the programme had its approval.
“Our representatives were very much present in the meeting on directions of Geelani Sahib. He had authorized the representatives to attend the meeting on his behalf and nobody went there on his own”, Parra told a local agency, KNS.
He said that all parties were present in the meeting either through their leaders or through their approved representatives.
On Monday, the Muttahida Majlis e Mashawarat – a joint advisory council of various separatist organizations in Kashmir formed to chalk out a protest strategy for return of Afzal Guru’s body – issued its first programme.
In a mailed statement, the Majlis e Mashawarat asked people to observe a strike this Friday and attach red ribbons on their vehicles, shops and houses on Saturday.
The ribbons in red, it said, would be symbolic of the “sacrifices of the tens of thousands of youth whose blood was shed by the Indian government”.
On Wednesday the council has called for protests by lawyers and has asked people in south Kashmir to hold protests at district headquarters.
The council has asked people to chant slogans like “We want freedom”, “Return the body of the martyr” and “Allah o Akbar”.
