Kashmiri separatist groups have welcomed United States President Barack Obama's statement that Jammu and Kashmir was 'a longstanding dispute between India and Pakistan which the two neighbours must resolve'.
The Hurriyat Conference and other major separatist groups will boycott the conference.
"What is the point of holding discussion with the government to government level by New Delhi?" askeed the Mirwaiz.
Following recent serious differences that have surfaced in the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference over the issue of 'quiet dialogue' with the Centre, an extraordinary meeting of the conglomerate decided, on Monday, to suspend the party's office bearers and keep the various committees in suspended animation.
Ahead of Indo-Pak foreign ministers meet in New Delhi on Wednesday, Pakistan Minister Hina Rabbani Khar on Tuesday met both the Hurriyat Conference factions during which the separatists sought Islamabad's intervention for release of Ghulam Nabi Fai arrested in US for being a front of Inter Services Intelligence.
Barring a clash between protesters and security forces which left one person injured in Sopore, situation in strike-hit Kashmir Valley remained calm though restrictions were imposed in parts of interior city where Hurriyat Conference had planned to hold a meeting.
Making a fresh demand for a result-oriented dialogue, the moderate faction of Hurriyat Conference and Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front on Monday demanded setting up of Kashmir committees in India and Pakistan to find an everlasting solution to the Kashmir issue.
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference denied the charges levelled against him by Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah. Speaking to rediff.com from his residence in downtown Srinagar, the Mirwaiz said "the charges levelled by the chief minister were baseless and unfounded".
Hard-line separatist leader and All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani was detained by the police in Srinagar on Wednesday. A group of policemen led by senior officers reached his uptown Hyderpora residence on Wednesday afternoon and took the octogenarian separatist leader into custody.Geelani, who has been spearheading the violent protests that have rocked the valley in the last few months, was shifted to the nearby police station at Humhama.
Apprehending law and order problem in Anantnag where a youth was allegedly killed in firing by security forces on August 30, curfew remained in force in the town, official sources said.
Geelani was heading towards Baramulla to address Friday prayers and a public meeting
Security forces opened fire to quell stone-pelting protesters as fresh violence erupted on Friday in Kashmir after days of relative calm, leaving two persons dead and 50 others injured. Authorities imposed strict restrictions on the movement of people following a call by the separatists to march to Maisuma in the heart of the city to protest against the killing of youths allegedly in firing by security forces.
In an apparent fall-out of holding funeral prayers for Osama bin Laden, an European Union delegation snubbed hard-line Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani by cancelling a scheduled meeting. "A meeting was initially planned for May 14 with Syed Ali Shah Geelani, but given the latest events, the EU delegation considers it inopportune to hold the meeting," a statement said. It also called off a meeting with members of the Kashmir Bar Association.
Funeral prayers in absentia were offered for slain Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in various mosques in Jammu and Kashmir capital Srinagar and other towns after the congregational Friday prayers.
Curfew-like-restrictions were imposed on Tuesday in Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar and other towns to scuttle the separatist called marches.
Prohibitory orders clamped following lifting of curfew remained in force in Srinagar and other major towns of the Kashmir Valley on Monday even as normal life was affected in the wake of a strike called by separatists to protest against recent preventive detentions.
Mirwaiz extended an open invitation to all pro-freedom groups to join the Hurriyat Conference to strengthen it.
Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin was among Kashmiri militant leaders who addressed a rally organised in the Pakistani capital Islamabad on Tuesday to protest alleged human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir.
An indefinite curfew was imposed in Srinagar and other towns on Thursday evening to scuttle Friday's proposed separatist march to Eidgah grounds in the city.
Life across Kashmir valley was badly affected on Friday by a protest shutdown called by hard-line separatist leader and All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani.The strike had been called to protest against the alleged human rights violations in Kashmir.Although authorities didn't impose any restrictions in the old city, security across Srinagar has been beefed up to maintain law and order.
The Srinagar police detained chairman of the moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq along with other senior leaders of the group in Srinagar on Thursday.
Life was paralyzed in Jammu and Kashmir capital Srinagar and some other towns on Saturday in protest against the killing of a top Muslim cleric on Friday in a powerful blast.
All Parties Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq has ruled out resumption of talks with the Centre, saying that "genocide of Kashmiris and dialogue can't go together".
Moderate separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) chairman Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq on Friday categorically denied that "any quiet dialogue was going on between them and the Centre".
Geelani, chairman of hard-line Hurriyat Conference, also tried to defy the house arrest and lead a march towards the UNMOG.
The Maharashtra CM also maintained that he had opposed the offer of Rs 5 crore contribution from makers to the army welfare fund.
The efforts to forge unity among the various Kashmiri separatist groups received a jolt after hardline separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani rejected the unity move of the moderate, All Parties Hurriyat Conference on Wednesday.
Normal life in Kashmir was disrupted on Tuesday following a strike call given by the hardline separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference against the curbs imposed on its chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani in New Delhi, which barred him from leaving the capital.
Separatist leader and Chairman of Hurriyat Conference (G) Syed Ali Geelani has urged people to actively participate in the Census to put an end to the much-talked about demographic supremacy of a particular community, the daily Rising Kashmir has reported.
Three senior separatist leaders along with pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik and their 13 supporters were detained by the state police on Wednesday as they tried to march towards Lal Chowk to hoist the party flag on clock tower.
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, has denied news reports that appeared in a leading national paper saying that he did not want travel documents to be issued to rival APHC group chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani when an AHPC delegation visited Pakistan in 2005.
The statements made before a judicial magistrate had tightened the case against separatists.
Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, chairman of the moderate faction of the All Party Hurriyat Conference, has welcomed United States President Barack Obama's stance on the Kashmir dispute."President Obama offered help in facilitating the negotiations between India and Pakistan as the trust between the two key parties has been shattered. We, the people of Kashmir, are happy with the outcome. We have never ever called for third party mediation," he said.
"We have seen enough of strikes and curfews for the past four months and now we want to feed our families. We cannot go on forever like this," a vendor, who identified himself only as Khalid, told PTI
Calling for a boycott of the Centre's interlocutors on Jammu and Kashmir, hardline Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani said they had been appointed as part of a 'dirty trick' to mislead United States President Barack Obama.
"Several innocent people have been killed and I strongly feel violence should come to an end," Abdullah said.
Leaders of the pro-dialogue moderate All Parties Hurriyat Conference including the conglomerate chairman, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq, were placed under house arrest on Thursday by the authorities in Srinagar to thwart the proposed march and sit-in by them on World Human Rights Day.Almost all the senior separatist leaders of the moderate group, including Mirwaiz himself, professor Abdul Gani Bhat, Shabir Shah, Naeem Ahmad Khan were placed under house arrest.
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