Kashmir Solidarity Day observed across Pakistan on February 5 may have evoked the usual sound and fury but what made it different from past such events is a tele-address to a Jamat-ud-Dawah conference in Lahore by Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani and, significantly, enough by moderate Hurriyat leader Shabir Shah, a sign of a changing alignment of separatist forces in the Valley.

The conference was presided over by Dawah chief Hafiz Muhammad Sayeed, founder of the Lashkar-e-Toiba. The Jamat-ud-Dawah’s official line is that it’s a humanitarian relief organization and has no correlation with the banned Lashkar-e-Toiba.

“I had the chance to address the conference in Lahore and thank Pakistani people for their cooperation,” Shah told The Indian Express. Shah, who is leading the initiative for Hurriyat unity, also handles Hurriyat affairs these days in the absence of chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq who is in Cairo on a personal visit. “I feel obliged to Jamat-ud-Dawah for giving me this opportunity,” Shah said.

Last year, the waving of a lone Jamaat-ud-Dawah flag at a Geelani public rally had led to a national uproar over the issue which ended with the arrest of six close aides of Geelani. Both Shah and Geelani in their speeches called for the “re-invigoration of the Azadi struggle in Kashmir”.

With Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf hemmed in by the violence in the North-West and the political backlash after the assassination if Benazir Bhutto, separatist groups on either side are trying to wrest the initiative.

... contd.