Geelani Hurriyat declines Pak invite to meet Aziz, Kasuri

Srinagar, Apr 2 (UNI) The breakaway Hurriyat Conference, led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani, today declined in protest Pakistan's invite to meet its Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on the margins of the 14th SAARC Summit, beginning in New Delhi tomorrow.

Sources in the Geelani-led Hurriyat said the Majlis-e-Shoura, the highest decision-making of the amalgam, in an extra-ordinary meeting today decided that its leaders will not meet Mr Aziz or Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri or Foreign Secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan during their visit to India for the SAARC Summit in protest against Pakistan's flexible stand vis-a-vis the Kashmir issue.

The Pakistan High Commission had sent invitations to several prominent Kashmiri separatist leaders for a meeting with Mr Aziz during his stay in the national capital.

They said during his last meeting with Mr Geelani, Mr Kasuri failed to give satisfactory reply to some of the queries put forth by the firebrand leader on Pakistan's changed stance on Kashmir.

The sources said Pakistan has totally given up its long-standing demand of resolving the Kashmir issue as per the UN resolutions.

The Pakistan government was now putting forth new proposals and formulae to resolve the long-festering issue which were not acceptable to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, they added.

The sources said the amalgam's decision of not meeting the Pakistan Prime Minister this time was taken to register protest.

Moreover, Mr Geelani was convalescing in the Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital in Mumbai following his kidney surgery on March 26.

Acting chairman of the breakaway Hurriyat Conference Ghulam Nabi Sumjhi was invited by the Pakistan High Commission to meet Mr Aziz.

However, the sources said the decision stands for this meeting only and would be reviewed in future.

Meanwhile, leaders of the moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, would leave for Delhi tomorrow to meet the visiting Pakistani dignitaries.

All the six moderate Hurriyat executive members -- the Mirwaiz, Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat, Maulana Abbas Ansari, Bilal Ghani Lone, Fazal Haq Qureshi and Aga Syed Hassan -- have been invited by the Pakistan High Commission for a meeting with Mr Aziz and other leaders.

However, Prof Bhat was unlikely to meet Prime Minister Aziz as he is at present on a visit to Pakistan.

The pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front would take a decision tomorrow soon after its chairman Yasin Malik returns from Karachi, Pakistan.

A two-member Democratic Freedom Party delegation, led by chairman Shabir Ahmed Shah, would also leave for Delhi tomorrow to meet the visiting Pakistani leaders.

It has become a routine with the Kashmiri separatist leaders to make a beeline for the national capital whenever a Pakistani dignitary arrives in India.

UNI