In a bid to consolidate their waning political fortunes in the wake of the declining militancy in the state, Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Monday received the estranged Shabir Shah back into its fold.

In a ceremony at Srinagar’s Martyr’s Graveyard, Shah announced his emotional re-entry into Hurriyat. Mirwaiz also appealed to militant conglomerate United Jihad Council, JKLF supremo Yasin Malik and Jamaat-i-Islami to return to the grouping. No call was, however, sent to hawk Geelani.

“Hurriyat welcomes Shabir Shah back home. It will strengthen us. Now, I look forward to the return of our other colleagues. Unity is the need of hour,” Mirwaiz said. He said Hurriyat was willing to restore its original 1993 constitution which bars the grouping from holding dialogue within the Constitution of India. He, however, added that Hurriyat would not hold any talks “within the Constitution of Pakistan”, as well.

Re-entry into Hurriyat ends Shah’s 10-year-old political wilderness, which had virtually reduced him to a non-entity in Valley’s separatist politics. Shah was expelled from Hurriyat in 1996 after he met the US ambassador to India Frank Wisner in Srinagar, ignoring grouping’s call to boycott him for his statement that the separatists had held dialogue with Centre. Later, Hurriyat itself went through a vertical split after Geelani floated his own Hurriyat faction which espoused a hardline approach to the settlement of the Kashmir issue.

Shah is the third senior leader in the past week to join Hurriyat. Azam Inquilabi and Sheikh Aziz, who earlier belonged to Geelani’s faction, have already rejoined.

... contd.