Following the footsteps of his younger brother, senior Hurriyat Conference leader and chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Independent Movement Bilal Gani Lone is going to quit separatist politics. Bilal Gani Lone is likely to join mainstream politics to contest the next assembly elections in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Bilal Lone is the elder brother of Jammu and Kashmir Peoples' Conference chairman Sajad Gani, Lone who had joined mainstream politics in the year 2009 after saying goodbye to separatist politics.
Bilal and Sajad Lone are the sons of the politician of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir Abdul Gani Lone who joined separatist politics after the formation of the All Party Hurriyat Conference in the early 1990s.
Abdul Gani Lone was killed by terrorists on 21 May 2002 while commemorating the 12th anniversary of the death of Kashmiri leader Mirwaiz Maulvi Farooq at Idgah Srinagar.
Before he was killed by terrorists on May 21, 2002, Abdul Gani Lone had a tiff with hardliner leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. While Abdul Gani Lone pushed for the ouster of foreign terrorists from the Valley, Geelani had always welcomed them.
Sajad Gani Lone had accused Geelani and the Pakistani notorious spy agency ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) of being responsible for his father's killing.
Bilal Lone to join electoral politics
A news agency reported that Bilal Gani Lone will formally join active electoral politics in the coming days.
His father Abdul Gani Lone was a three-time MLA before joining the separatist ranks.
"If Bilal is joining the mainstream politics he will reclaim that legacy and can make a bigger and visible impact, especially at the time when elections are about to happen," a news agency reported while quoting a political analyst.
The reports said that Lone will soon part ways with Hurriyat Conference as he has firmly decided to fight the upcoming Assembly elections from his ancestral "strongly hold" in North Kashmir. This political development gives insight into a huge change in the political dynamics of Kashmir Valley where separatist politics are becoming irrelevant with every passing day.
Hurriyat Conference becoming obsolete in Kashmir
Separatist All-Party Hurriyat Conference is becoming obsolete in Kashmir Valley as the residents are fed up with politics of bloodshed and destruction. Last week, after the killing of a Kashmiri Pandit by terrorists, a group of people ransacked the office of All Party Hurriyat Conference for supporting terrorists.
Angered by recent innocent killings in Kashmir, some social activists damaged the office of the separatist Hurriyat Conference in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar city.
Visibly angered over the recent killings, the group of activists told reporters that the Hurriyat leaders had deceived the people for the past 30 years and they were responsible for killing innocents in Kashmir.
