SRINAGAR, APRIL 2 The Government has allowed four Kashmiri lawyers, two of whom are second-rung leaders of the Hurriyat Conference, to travel to Pakistan to attend a lawyers’ conference.

Although the Hurriyat officially maintains that the visitors have gone in their ‘‘personal capacity,’’ there is a buzz in separatist circles here that there is much more to this trip than a seminar.

Sources here said that these leaders have gone on a trip to Pakistan with an innovative plan which revolves round the possibility of fielding proxy candidates in the forthcomming elections who, if elected, will then endorse the Hurriyat stand on Kashmir in the state Assembly.

The lawyers, Ghulam Nabi Shaheen, Mohammad Amin Bhat, Ghulam Nabi Hagroo and Mohammad Ashraf Bhat, left for Pakistan on March 29 to attend the two-day conference conducted by the Supreme Court Lawyers’ Association of Pakistan.

Shaheen is an influential member of Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat’s party, the Muslim Conference, while Mohammad Amin Bhat is believed to be close to former Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.

Hagroo is a human-rights lawyer who, too, wields significant clout in the Hurriyat while Bhat is said to be very close to Ghulam Ahmad Sheikh, a former college teacher who spent more than five years in jail in an alleged hawala case.

‘‘A political thought is fast emerging within the separatist camp that wants to use participation in the Assembly polls as a strategy and thus join the fray. These four are part of that ideology and we call them the third front. They believe that they can help the separatist movement on the floor of Assembly if they manage to win the polls,’’ a Hurriyat leader told The Indian Express on condition of anonymity.

‘‘They are of the opinion that challenging Farooq Abdullah is very important becuase otherwise he will seal all possibilities of a dialogue between the Hurriyat and New Delhi for another six years and keep presenting himself as the legitimate democratic face in Kashmir,’’ he said.

He said that the Hurriyat conference, too, has agreed to let them use this opportunity to test the waters across as well. ‘‘They will hold discussions with the Pakistani leadership as well as various Kashmiri separatist leaders there. They certainly don’t want to take any decisions without ascertaining what will be its reaction from across the border,’’ he said.

Sources say the brain behind this is that of Ghulam Ahmad Sheikh who was himself going to travel to Pakistan. ‘‘Although the Hurriyat top brass still sticks to its stated policy that they will not contest polls, this plan has been making rounds for many weeks now,’’ sources said.

Hurriyat chairman Bhat was not available but its spokesman in New Delhi, A M Banday, said that the four had gone in their ‘‘personal capacity.’’

Lone blames Farooq

SRINAGAR: Hurriyat Conference leader Abdul Gani Lone today accused Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah of orchestrating an attack on him, describing it as part of a campaign to intimidate and muffle the moderate voices in the separatist camp which was posing a real challenge to him in Kashmir.