Mirwaiz suspends aide for rejecting backdoor talks

The Centre’s backdoor diplomacy with Kashmiri separatists has claimed its first casualty. Mohammad Yousuf Naqash, a close aide of moderate Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, has been suspended for rejecting the talks.

Naqash, president of Islamic Political Party (IPP) and a general council member of the Hurriyat Conference, was suspended after he wrote an article in a newspaper rejecting the quiet diplomacy between the separatists and the Centre. The matter was enough to provoke Mirwaiz, who shot off a letter suspending him from the Hurriyat. “I was not given any show cause notice. I was just given a chit saying you are suspended from Hurriyat,” said Naqash.

The order comes exactly a month after Hurriyat disbanded all its posts and issued a gag order on members, after top leaders, including former provincial president of Hurriyat Nayeem Khan, rejected backdoor diplomacy and asked leaders to retire.