A senior leader of the main separatist alliance in Kashmir on Tuesday urged women to adhere to strict Islamic dress code.

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Syed Ali Shah Geelani, the member of executive council of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), however added that he preferred persuasion to use of force.

"Muslim women should move about in veils or cloaks," Geelani said during a news conference in Srinagar.

Geelani supported the veil campaign launched last month by a lesser-known militant group, Lashkar-e-Jabbar, but advised the group not to use force against women for enforcing their diktat on veil.

"My appeal to the boys is that they should not attack women without veil with acid or use any other force," Geelani said. "Try to motivate them. Motivation and persuasion yield good results."

Lashkar-e-Jabbar has extended a September 1 deadline by 10 days for Kashmiri women to adopt the Islamic dress code and wear veils. The group, which claimed responsibility for an August acid attack on two women who were not conforming to the code, had threatened to take further action from September 1 against women who are what they call "immodestly dressed."

Geelani said Islam does allow to punish those who violate its norms and principles. "Those Muslims who consume wine are to be punished," he said.

Geelani, regarded as the hardliner among the APHC leaders, said it would take time for "our society to change as we are not living in a Muslim country."

"Veil is a great thing provided by Islam to women," he said.

On Monday another leader of APHC, Abdul Gani Lone, had condemned the Lashkar-e-Jabbar diktat on the strict Islamic dress code.

  "There is a provision in Islamic law in this regard. But nobody has the right to force it on anyone," Lone, leader of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), an amalgamation of a dozen Kashmir separatist outfits, had said.

Lone was speaking to reporters in Kerala.

However, Geelani on Tuesday said that provision is for non-Muslims and not for those who follow Islam.

Earlier a leading female separatist group, Dukhtaran-e-Millat had also supported the campaign.