Whistleblower website Wikileaks, which published its full archive of 251,000 covert US diplomatic cables, claims that the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq was contemplating contesting state assembly election in 2008.
A leaked cable from February 2007 to US State Department under the title “Preparing for elections”, said: Bilal Gani Lone told the US officials that the separatist group was contemplating contesting election in 2008.
“Bilal further said the APHC was considering joining elections in 2008, but conditions on the ground in Srinagar had to improve in order to make it safe enough for the group to do this,” the leaked cable sent from the US embassy in New Delhi by Ted Osius, political counsellor said.
“He said the APHC needed to make some progress with India, gaining some small concessions so the APHC could say they brought something home for the Kashmiri people from their efforts. Bilal said a meeting with the Indian prime minister or prisoner releases alone would not help because they would not change the conditions on the ground for Kashmiris,” the cable read further.
Instead, he said new CBMs to soften the LoC would be more useful, including allowing Kashmiris on both sides of the LoC to drive their own cars to the other side, opening the LoC to trade and transport from Muzzafarabad to Srinagar, permitting mobile phone links between the two cities, and reducing the paperwork for travel across the LoC on the bus, according to the cable.
In another cable titled “Uniting All Parties”, Bilal spoke also about his party’s [SIC] “efforts to unite the rest of the moderate separatist leaders in Srinagar along a single platform”.
“He said the group would try to approach Yasin Malik about joining its efforts, or at least not to openly oppose them, increasing their chances of being killed.”
Shabir Shah, he explained, was a fence sitter, and they would also approach him. He said he believed Geelani, however, was hardened into his position, and unlikely to change, it said. It read, “Bilal also said that he and his brother, Sajjad, had patched up their personal differences and were speaking to each other with some regularity.”
“We will try to unite all the parties, he said, because this is crucial to our ability to join elections,” the cable quoted Lone as saying.
