Moderate Hurriyat Leader Shot at, Peace Process Aimed

Update:

To protest the attack on moderate Hurriyat leaderFazal Haque Qureshi, a bandh was called, which affected life in the city. Qureshi is in hospital, his condition stable and out of danger.

Some unidentified gunmen shot at senior moderate leader Fazal Haq Qureshi on Friday when he was coming out of a mosque in downtown Srinagar.

A member of the executive council of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, Qureshi, 60, is a close aide of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Hurriyat’s chairma.

Inspector General of Police Farooq Ahmed said: “Mr Qureshi was lying unconscious outside the mosque near his home. Doctors found a head injury and he is being operated upon. His condition is critical.”

A team of surgeons, including his daughter Anleeb Qureshi, was performing surgery on him till late in the evening on Friday. As Qureshi was being attended, the hospital waiting room was full of moderate separatist leaders trying to comfort the family.

Qureshi’s family members mistook the gunshots for firecrackers. “Since the Valley is still in the Eid mood, we didn’t realise that they were gunshots,” said Afaq, Qureshi’s nephew.

It should be noted that the attack, being seen as a violent warning to the Mirwaiz against his initiative to hold talks with the Centre, came two days after Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said that there were positive responses to the talks offer.