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| India-Pakistan |
| APHC won't attend Kashmir moot |
| 2006-05-23 |
| The main Kashmiri separatist parties on Monday decided to stay away from the second roundtable meeting convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Srinagar on Wednesday. The moderate faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and the Shabbir Ahmed Shah-led Democratic Freedom Party turned down Singh's invitation on the grounds that there could be no serious discussions in the crowded conference attended by as many as 30 pro-India groups. At a crowded press conference in Srinagar, Mirwaiz said his alliance was, however, willing to meet the prime minister separately during his two-day visit to Kashmir. For the past a few days, intelligence agencies and officials of the Prime Minister's Office lobbied hectically to seek the participation of the moderate Hurriyat and a separate meeting was seen as a way out of the impasse. But the pro-India National Conference (NC) threatened to boycott the meeting if the prime minister met Hurriyat leaders separately. The party president, Omar Abdullah, said when Pakistan had recognised their party and its president, Pervez Musharraf, had met him separately, "why is Hurriyat being so rigid?". |
| Posted by:Fred |