MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 17: An attempt to reunify the two factions of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) appear to have hit snags and a leader of the Amanullah Khan led-faction accused the Yasin Malik led-faction of retracting from the proposals agreed upon during a meeting of a conciliation committee.

“Efforts to reunite the divided JKLF have failed to achieve the objective mainly due to the retraction of Yasin Malik’s group from the proposals agreed upon by the committee comprising representatives from both factions,” said Sardar M Saghir, JKLF (A) secretary general.

The JKLF, which advocates complete independence and oneness of Kashmir, was disintegrated in Sep 1995 allegedly after Mr Malik, the group’s then president for occupied Kashmir, renounced militancy and vowed to carry on the struggle on political and diplomatic fronts.

Amanullah Khan led-faction terms Mr Malik’s decision as a revolt against the central organisation. “He formed a parallel faction of his own with the same name and himself as its head and ever since the two factions have been working separately,” Mr Saghir said in a statement.

Once regarded as the most powerful pro-freedom organization of Kashmir, JKLF takes the credit of initiating the ongoing armed struggle in 1988 for freedom of the Himalayan region. When Mr Malik visited Pakistan and AJK in June through Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service, several meetings between him and Mr Khan were held, reaching in an agreement on June 8 wherein reunification of the two groups was decided in principle.

In a written document, both leaders had pledged to “take sincere, constructive and practical steps to reunite the organisation.”

A six-member ‘conciliation committee’, headed by Dr Farooq Haider, was also formed to “chalk out modalities to materialize the decision” and directions were issued to workers of both groups “to extend fullest cooperation to each other in organisational and movement related matters.”

The committee, whose job included redrafting of group’s constitution, comprised three members each from both sides.