India, July 19 -- Former separatist leader Bilal Gani Lone has blamed the Hurriyat Conference for its own irrelevance, calling the separatist conglomerate "non-functional", and criticised Pakistan for creating a "mess" in Jammu and Kashmir.

"Hurriyat is no more relevant as on date. Hurriyat functional bhi nahi hai (Hurriyat is not even functional)," he told PTI Videos, adding, "let's be honest about it... when you talk about Hurriyat as on date, it's not present anywhere in Kashmir."

While acknowledging that people had once reposed their trust in the Hurriyat, he said the current reality was different. "Hurriyat Conference has lost relevance because we could not act," Lone said. "So the concept of Hurriyat may have been good at that tim...