In S A S Geelani’s exit from Hurriyat, an ISI conspiracy hatched in PoK

New Delhi, July 02: Kashmiri hardliner, Syed Ali Shah Geelani had last week, announced his exit from the Hurriyat Conference faction.

His exit comes after he had headed it for 17 years. While exiting, the grouping, he raised the cross border drug trade issue, which is sponsored by Pakistan's ISI.

However the real reason for his exit was the steady pace at which he was losing a grip over the Hurriyat's PoK faction. The real trouble began for Geelani, when the ISI decided to override his decision to nominate Abdullah Gilani to the top post.

While the ISI continued to promote younger leaders in the Hurriyat, Gilani had fought back and nominated Gilani to the top post. However the ISI stepped in and engineered the election of Mohammad Hussain Khateeb as the PoK chapter's convenor. This was embarrassing for Geelani and he had raised several complaints too. He said that he was upset that the representatives of the PoK chapter had been sending their relatives to the PoK assembly over the past two years.

While announcing his decision to step down, Geelani said in his letter that the leaders in PoK were trying to be part of the government and ministries. Recent investigations had led to the explosion of some people owing to financial irregularities and many other issues.

The ISI, on the other hand was upset with the old guard. The ISI felt that the old guard was unable to rake up passions and get the youth the streets. Further, the old guard did absolutely nothing after the government of India abrogated Article 370. It felt the need to replace them with a younger lot of people.