Ansari says he is happy to be out of Hurriyat

In a statement here late Thursday, Ansari "welcomed the Hurriyat decision to suspend his party, Itehadul Muslimeen, from the Mirwaiz Umer Farooq-led Hurriyat conference".

"The Hurriyat decision has given me freedom to do things my way," he said defiantly. Following his suspension from the Hurriyat Wednesday evening, Ansari had initially clarified that he had not had any dialogue with the central interlocutors.

The head of the three-member interlocutors, Dileep Padgaonkar, said Wednesday that the trio called on Ansari and had an hour-long discussion with him. Ansari then said he had only stuck to traditional Kashmiri hospitality and offered the visitors tea after he was surprised by their unscheduled arrival at his old city home in Srinagar.

"I did not have any discussions with them and told them that it had been the considered decision of the Hurriyat leaders not to engage in any discussions with the central interlocutors," Ansari's statement had said Wednesday evening.

But Thursday, he said he would not henceforth beg the Hurriyat for the inclusion of his party in the separatist conglomerate. "I will run my party and not beg the Hurriyat for inclusion again. Till now, we were following Hurriyat rules," he said.

The Shia leader, who has also been chairman of the Hurriyat group in the past, said: "I am for continuation of the dialogue on Kashmir and my doors are open for everyone who wants to meet me." He, however, said Kashmir was too complex an issue and added that talks on the subject needed to be headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Before being suspended for meeting the interlocutors, Ansari had many a time ruffled the separatists' feathers. Recently, he told reporters that people had no choice but to elect their representatives for village panchayats.

During the summer unrest last year, Ansari had blamed the Peoples Democratic Party of former chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed saying it paid "traditional trouble makers" to stone security forces.