Senior separatist leader and chairman of the Peoples League, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, on Friday announced his decision to join the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference headed by Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq.

Mirwaiz had met Aziz immediately after his release from the jail, and requested him to join the moderate APHC group and help strengthen the separatist conglomerate by bringing all senior separatist leaders under one fold.

"My decision to join the moderate group is aimed at strengthening the separatist voice in Kashmir," Aziz said. "Kashmiris are the basic party to the dispute, and must be included in the ongoing peace process to make it meaningful and result-oriented," he added.

Aziz later visited the Rajbagh headquarters of the APHC, where he met its senior leaders.

"We need to promote togetherness at all levels with all seriousness if an honourable and durable solution is to be worked out," Professor Abdul Gani Bhat, chief spokesman of the APHC said on the occasion.

Shabir Shah, another senior separatist leader and chairman of the Democratic Freedom Party, is also likely to join the Mirwaiz-led APHC in the coming days.