Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has invited All Parties Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and other leaders for talks in New Delhi on September 5.
This will be the first interaction between Jammu and Kashmir's moderate separatist group and the United Progressive Alliance dispensation as part of the dialogue process.
"The prime minister has invited Hurriyat vhairman and other leaders for talks," the prime minister's media adviser Sanjaya Baru said.
Complete coverage: The road to peace
Singh has been maintaining that he was ready to hold talks with any group that eschewed violence. The Prime Minister's Office has been in touch with the Kashmiri leaders through various interlocutors for quite some time now.
The Hurriyat had held two rounds of talks with the then Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani in the National Democratic Alliance government in 2004.
More from rediff