So who is Abdul Ghani Bhat, the man who met Mufti?

In February 1986, a professor of Persian in Jammu and Kashmir was dismissed from his job. The state found him and eight others guilty of arson and burning down of temples and houses of the minority Kashmiri Pandits in south Kashmir's Anantnag District. After having spent nine months in jail for his crime, he started a "political orghanisation" called the Muslim United Front (MUF). Riding high on its communal agenda, MUF, in a short time, became a force to reckon with. Just when everyone thought that MUF would win considerable seats in its pocket borough of south Kashmir, a rigged election in 1987 did the party in.

Many years later in July 2000, Abdul ghani Bhat told Nasir Hussain Peerzadah of The Milli Gazzette that he would personally prefer Kashmir becoming a part of Pakistan. This was despite the fact that his own brother was killed by militants belonging to the Hizbul Mujahideen (a terrorist group supported by Pakistan), a fact he himself acknowledges.

But much before he was slapped by an ex-terrorist and a much younger Yasin Malik at a Hurriyat meeting, Abdul ghani Bhat had already been showing signs of what one calls separatist fatigue. In a seminar in Srinagar in 2011, Bhat questioned the duplicity of people like SAS Geelani when he said "the time has come" to speak the truth. Unequivocally we must say "our own people killed them" (Mirwaiz Umar Farooq's father Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq and Sajjad Lone's father Abdul Ghani Lone were both killed by terrorists) he told the audience present at the seminar. This was the first time any separatist leader had dared Geelani openly. Even those, whose fathers had been killed had so far either maintained silence or blamed the "agencies" for their death.

Can you believe that the same professor Bhat told journalist Muzammil Jaleel (in a feature done for Al Jazeera in 2003), "We are grateful to our boys, who took up arms and made our cause felt and voice heard"?

Exactly a year back, on January 5, he said something that was music to Indian ears. He said: "'Let us stop beating the UN resolution drum."' In complete contrast to his earlier position where he had said, not once but repeatedly, that the All Parties Hurriyat Conference believes that "Kashmir dispute" should be settled as per UN resolutions. The same man was now describing these very sacrosanct resolutions as deadwood. The man who had started the MUF had come a long way.

As protracted negotiations for government formation in J&K between various political parties were going on, Abdul ghani met his "old friend" Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for a cup of tea. What ensued was a storm of sorts. There were allegations that the separatists wanted to convey to the PDP that it should not tie up with the BJP. Both Abdul ghani Bhat as well as the PDP described the meeting as apolitical. The meeting came in the wake of separatist leader Shabir Shah saying that if PDP tied up with the "communal" BJP it would be seen as opportunistic politics by the Muftis. Many said that it was the Mufti's way of telling the BJP to fall in line by accepting his proposals on government formation or else.

After the tea party ended, Abdul ghani Bhat said, "Snakes can marry rats and bulls chase lizards, anything can happen with reference to the formation of the government but at present we can say let us not count stars which lie beyond".

Political scientists and analysts are still trying to figure out the motives behind such a meeting. Abdul ghani Bhat has for long been trying to tell the mainstream something. Maybe someone finally heard him. After all it is the year of Ghar Wapsi.