Kashmir's main separatist alliance has averted a major crisis by deciding not to suspend one of its members.
The All-Party Hurriyat Conference was furious with the People's Conference for putting up candidates in this month's state assembly elections, in defiance of the alliance's collective decision to boycott the polls.
The Hurriyat sought to distance itself from elections because it says the 'freedom' struggle that has been waged in the state for a decade is not about elections or political power but about Kashmiris' right to decide their future.
A row erupted within the Hurriyat when it became known that the People's Conference, led by Sajjad and Bilal Lone, sons of the slain moderate Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Lone, had secretly put up four candidates across north Kashmir.
The Hurriyat was on the verge of expelling the brothers but eventually decided at a meeting in Srinagar that it was too risky, partly because it was already divided over the elections with some leaders against and others more ambivalent.
But the Lone brothers claim they never approved the four election candidates.