We can’t imagine of hurting anyone: Geelani

A file picture of the All Parties' Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Geelani, addressing a press conference in Srinagar. Photo: Nissar Ahmad.

In the wake of attack on moderate separatist leader Fazal Haq Qureshi, the hardline Hurriyat Conference today said it had no control over any militant outfit operating in Jammu and Kashmir.

“We have no control over any militant outfit. We don’t have any ill-will against anybody and cannot even imagine of hurting anyone,” Syed Ali Geelani, chairman of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference, told a rally here.

“We are not involved in provocative statements. We only speak the truth,” he said apparently referring to the statement of the moderate Hurriyat Conference, led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, blaming the attack on “irresponsible utterances“.

“We even restrict people from making provocative slogans against India,” Mr. Geelani said.

However, the Hurriyat hawk said “if somebody gets angry over the policy of those ready to hold talks with New Delhi, what can we do?”

Mr. Qureshi, a moderate face of the separatists, was shot at by militants of Al-Nasreen outfit outside a mosque here on Friday evening in what is seen as an attempt to sabotage the talks.

The Al-Nasreen is believed to be a front of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba.