NEW DELHI, Nov 13: A recent internal split in Kashmir’s All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) was endorsed by Pakistan on Thursday when visiting Information Minister Shaikh Rashid Ahmed announced that Islamabad accepts Syed Ali Shah Geelani as the group’s leader.

Mr Geelani’s rival, Maulvi Abbas Ansari, who is recognized so far by most embassies in New Delhi and by the Indian government as the official chairman of APHC, said he would not be perturbed if Pakistan formally de-recognized him.

“Hurriyat is a Kashmiri body. It is neither Indian nor Pakistani. It is made by Kashmiris, for Kashmiris. Anyone who does not accept this is not having any idea where Kashmir’s interests lie,” Maulvi Ansari told Dawn from Srinagar.

Mr Geelani is a pro-Pakistan leader of Kashmir’s Jamaat-i-Islami, and a former head of the APHC.

Pakistan’s High Commissioner Aziz Ahmed Khan had invited Mr Geelani and Maulvi Abbas Ansari on Thursday for an annual Iftar, but Mr Geelani could not travel from Srinagar because the flights to Delhi were mysteriously cancelled, diplomats said.

Maulvi Abbas had declined to attend the Iftar saying he was not invited as the APHC chief.

Pakistani diplomats said Mr Ahmed, present at Thursday’s Iftar, was apparently forced to take a clear position, something that Islamabad was being officially wary of, after the simmering dispute within the APHC became a contentious issue in the media.

Indian Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani was quoted on Thursday as saying that he would hold rare talks with Maulvi Abbas after Eid.

Mr Ahmed told reporters before boarding a flight to return home that even the Organization of Islamic Conference had recognized Mr Geelani as the APHC chief. That could only be possible with Islamabad’s intervention.

“The OIC recognizes Geelani as the Hurriyat chief and so does Islamabad. He is the Hurriyat chairman,” Mr Ahmed told reporters at the Pakistan High Commission. Pakistani diplomats said the Kashmir Committee of the OIC had recently invited Mr Geelani to its summit, addressing him as the head of the Kashmir outfit.

However, the diplomats had told Dawn as recently as last week that they would not want to get involved with what they saw as APHC’s internal dispute.

Maulvi Abbas Ansari is backed by the APHC seven-member executive committee, while Mr Geelani claims the support of the wider general council. Mr Geelani says the council had passed a vote of no-confidence against Maulvi Abbas last month.