SRINAGAR, India, 21 February 2006 — The moderate group of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) yesterday rejected an invitation by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to attend a round table conference on Kashmir in New Delhi.
After a meeting of its executive committee at the Rajbagh headquarters, the APHC chairman, Mirwaiz Maulvi Umar Farooq, told reporters: “The offer to attend the conference on Feb. 25 was discussed by our executive committee, working committee and the general council. The offer was earlier discussed by the various constituents of the APHC at their party level. It has been unanimously decided that the APHC would not attend the proposed meeting.”
The Mirwaiz said his group had been the first to respond positively to the dialogue offer by the Indian leadership when it was strongly opposed by some other separatist groups in Kashmir. “We had proposed that by the end of the second round of talks, concrete proposals must be put forward to resolve the Kashmir dispute and the Indian government must bring in material change in the ground situation here so that the common man felt relief. Unfortunately, no such steps were taken by the government of India,” the Mirwaiz said.
He also said it was premature to hold a joint meet on Kashmir. “When such a time arrives, the round table conference must include representatives from both parts of Kashmir,” he asserted
The Mirwaiz also criticized the idea of inviting pro-India leaders and groups to the round table conference. “Only those who started the present movement and who dispute the present status of Kashmir should be included in deliberations to look for solutions to the problem. Inviting groups and parties that do not dispute the present status of Kashmir would only add to the confusion and actually damage the ongoing dialogue process,” he said.
The prime minister has called minority Hindu groups in the region, pro-India political parties as well as separatist groups for the peace conference but has not invited nuclear rival Pakistan with which New Delhi has a separate peace process.
By his refusal to attend the round table conference, the moderate APHC group has fallen in line with hard-line All Parties Hurriyat Conference faction led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani who has already refused the round table offer.
Violence meanwhile continued in the northern state. Security forces killed four suspected rebels in two gunfights, police said.
Two rebels were shot dead in a gunbattle early yesterday after they were discovered hiding in a house during an army and police search operation in Sagipora village of Northern Baramulla district, a police officer said. The house was badly damaged in the clash that lasted several hours, the officer said, asking not to be named.
Another two militants were killed by security forces at a village in the Tral area of southern Pulwama district on Sunday night. Police said both rebels were Pakistani nationals and affiliated to the hard-line Jaish-e-Mohammad group.
In another incident, police said militants shot and injured a youth at his home on the outskirts of Srinagar on Sunday. He was rushed to hospital where he died of his injuries.
Violence in Indian Kashmir continues despite a slow-moving peace process between India and Pakistan. Tens of thousands of people have died in Indian-administered Kashmir, mainly Hindu India’s only Muslim-majority state, since the insurgency against New Delhi’s rule broke out in 1989.
The scenic region is held in parts by India and Pakistan but claimed in full by both.
— Additional input from agencies
