Srinagar: Kashmiri separatist leader Muhammad Yasin Malik on Saturday blamed civil society members for harming the Kashmir movement under the cover of “impartiality”.

“Our movement internally has been harmed by our literati, who should have instead strengthened it,” the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) chairman said.

He accused the Kashmir civil society members of collaboration and opportunism.

“These people attend global conferences, talk about human rights, even go to Pakistan tell them how to run the movement and then land in Delhi to tell the Indian government how to manage the conflict,” he said.

“Isn’t it the worst form of hypocrisy,” he questioned at the condolence gathering of senior separatist leader Azam Inqilabi’s mother who died this week.

“In our functions they don pro-freedom mantle. Many teenagers get enthused by their speeches and some pelt stones on Indian troops while some take up guns in their hands. But it is ironic that the same people don’t mind attending government conferences and go to government people and ministers for petty favours,” he said.

He claimed more than 27,000 registered NGOs are working in Jammu and Kashmir.

“Our martyrs including young boys are real heroes, who believed in the cause and laid down their lives for the cause. But our intellectuals and NGO practitioners are just after self-glorification,” he added.