Former Hurriyat | Pakistan

NEW DELHI: Former Hurriyat chairman and advocate of India-Pakistan talks to resolve the Kashmir dispute, Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat, passed away in Sopore on Wednesday. He was 89. According to family members, Bhat had been unwell recently and “passed away peacefully at his residence”. Official sources said the administration suggested that the family “conclude the final rites by Wednesday night”. Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and other colleagues from Srinagar were not allowed to visit Sopore, The Hindu said. Bhat, who readily quoted from classical Persian poets to describe every crisis and its resolution, was among the few leaders in occupied Kashmir whose political career arc spanned from mainstream electoral politics to seeking a final settlement to the Kashmir problem. Having quit his government job as a Persian professor to join politics, he co-founded the Muslim United Front (MUF), which contested the 1987 election. He later became chairman of the Hurriyat, an amalgam of at least 13 anti-India groups...