Hurriyat leader Bhat sacked from party for meeting interlocutor

A week after meeting Government of India’s representative Dineshwar Sharma, senior separatist leader Abdul Gani Bhat has been sacked from his own party The Muslim Conference.

In a letter addressed to Mirwaiz Uma Farooq, new party president Muhammad Sultan Magray stated that Bhat has been removed as the party president in wake of his meeting with Sharma, which goes against the stand of Joint Hurriyat leadership led by Syed Ali Geelani, Mirwaiz and Yasin Malik.

“Our party cadre is concerned about the development and we called for an immediate meeting in which it was decided that Magray will be the acting president for next six months. It is therefore requested to your good self that for future programmes and coordination, Magray may be communicated,” the letter read.


The letter has been widely circulated on social media. However, Mirwaiz said he was not aware of any such letter as no communication has reached him yet.

“I haven’t received any letter yet. However, we have already issued a notice to Professor Sahib to explain his position and make his stand clear on whether he has met Sharma or not. He is not saying anything clearly,” Mirwaiz told ET. Last week, ET in an exclusive report mentioned that Bhat along with another Hurriyat leader had met Sharma in his office at Wazir Bagh in Srinagar.

The Joint Hurriyat leadership, influential businessmen and civil society members have decided not to engage with Sharma, terming the exercise as a ‘waste of time.’ They have demanded, sincere, time bound and result-oriented dialogue also involving Pakistan for the political resolution of Kashmir issue.

Soon after the letter of expulsion was public, Bhat issued another letter sacking Manzoor ul Haq Bhat, MC’s representative in Pakistan.

“In regard to your ambition admixed with indiscipline, I, Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, president of Muslim Conference…hereby expel you from the basic membership of the organisation and shall therefore cease to represent MC in any respect and at any level in Pakistan. Furthermore, I have also decided as a consequence to nominate Tanveer ul Islam as the chief representative in Pakistan,” read the letter Bhat issued.