Hurriyat to raise funds for Lajpat Nagar blast convicts

The hardline faction of the Hurriyat Conference today said it would raise funds to defend the Kashmiri youths, convicted recently in 1996 Lajpat Nagar blast case, in higher courts.

"The amalgam will raise funds at local and international levels to defend the convicted youths," Syed Ali Shah Geelani, chairman of the hardline faction of the Hurriyat, said.
      
The funds would be used to hire top lawyers to defend the convicts in higher courts, he told reporters here.
      
On April 22, a Delhi court had awarded death penalty to three members of the Jammu Kashmir Islamic Front, a militant outfit, for the 1996 Lajpat Nagar market blast which left 13 dead.
      
The court also awarded life imprisonment to a youth.
      
On coordination with Hurriyat's moderate faction on the issue of violation of human rights, Geelani ruled out such a possibility.
      
"A two-member team of the moderate faction met me. But, there is no possibility of coordination with them on the issue.
      
"I have a bitter experience of 10 years in (undivided) Hurriyat and everyone knows what they have done. Now, it is impossible to coordinate with them," Geelani said.
      
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the moderate faction, yesterday said his amalgam had chalked out an agitational programme against what it said violation of human rights in the state.
      
Geelani said his conglomerate would announce a separate programme of protest on the issue.