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Hurriyat won't attend 2nd Kashmir roundtable

By Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar
Last updated on: May 22, 2006 16:42 IST
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The All Party Hurriyat Conference on Monday turned down Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's invitation to attend the second roundtable conference on Kashmir scheduled for May 24-25 in Srinagar.

The Hurriyat, led by Mirwaiz Maulvi Umer Farooq, added that it was ready to meet the prime minister separately in Srinagar.

On the reason to reject the prime minister's invitation, the Hurriyat said, "The crowd of political hypocrites and surrendered militants with no agenda can hardy produce a result."

"It was unanimously decided not to attend the roundtable conference," Hurriyat Chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq told reporters after a joint meeting of the Amalgam's Executive Committee, General Council and Working Committee in Srinagar.

"Hurriyat Conference considers that a crowd comprising of political hypocrites and Ikhwanis (counter-insurgents) with no agenda can hardly produce a result for permanent resolution of Kashmir problem which the people in entire South Asian region desparately long for,"Mirwaiz said reading out from a prepared statement.

The Hurriyat Chairman, however, said the Amalgam leaders were willing to meet the Prime Minister separately during his two-day visit to Kashmir. Hurriyat Conference chooses to sieze the opportunity of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Kashmir to take forward the process already in place and if he pleases to agree, the leaders will be talking to him in Srinagar as well, he said adding that the Amalgam would proceed with its policy of continuing the dialogue process with India and Pakistan.

Hurriyat is a relevant forum and represents the sentiments of people of Jammu and Kashmir as well as the dynamics of the change, he said. The Amalgam had not attended the first roundtable conference convened by the prime minister in February in New Delhi.

Also See: Let us build a new Kashmir: PM

(With PTI Inputs)

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Mukhtar Ahmad in Srinagar