NEW DELHI: Dr. Farooq Abdullah, president of the National Conference, has described the leaders of Hurriyat Conferences insignificant persons’, who acted as instruments of the Organization of Islamic Countries OIC against India.

“Asserting that Hurriyat leaders often toured abroad at the invitation of the secretary general of OIC to defame India, the former chief minister ‘emphasized that time had come to ‘combat Pakistan’s falsehoods within the Organization of Islamic Countries. “We must undertake firefighting by being within the fire itself,” he observed.

The Hurriyat leaders, he said, had tried their luck at the hosting under a different garb in 1977 and 1983 state elections, but failed to win the popular vote to make it to the state legislative assembly. The National Conference and the Hurriyat, he said, had nothing in common, as the former was acting as a proxy for other forces, Dr. Abdullah urged New Delhi to evolve a ‘cogent policy’ with a view sets. He said that special effort would be made to remove the misgivings of the OIC countries, most of whom were getting ‘one side’s version about happenings in Kashmir, because of ‘Our absence from the organization,”

He disagreed with the view that India should not try for an “observer” status in the OIC and keep aloof from it “We should be right inside it and fight the fire within it.”

Meanwhile in Srinagar, the former Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir and National Conference leader, Dr. Farooq Abdullah, in.an interview to BBC has said he would recommend to the working committee of his party to boycott proposed elections in the state.

“The level of violence in the state is 100 high to be conductive to free and meaningful poll,” he told BBC in a program broadcast last week, adding the average daily toll is around 4050.

Fifty thousand Kashmiris have been killed so far. “How can one think of elections in such an atmosphere,” he asked.

“I am not going to mislead Kashmiris” he added.

Asked about the response of the Prime Minister, P.V, Narasimha ao, to his party’s demand for restoration of 1952 position to the state, Dr. Abdullah said “they promise everything but after the elections.”

“This is what they (central leaders) did to my father, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, and never fulfilled it,” he said.

The working committee of the National Conference will meet on November 1112 to decide the issue of participating in the proposed elections following rejection of the party’s demand for restoration of 1952 position by the Center.

National Conference sources in Srinagar said the statement of Dr. Farooq Abdullah indicating that National Conference is not going to participate in tile elections was a “brave and proper” step as the party had nothing to offer to the people if the demand of restoration of 1952 post Meanwhile, the president of the Government and Public Sector Employees Conference, Nazir Ahmad Baba, said state employees would not be party of the elections.

Article extracted from this publication >> November 10, 1995