Qureshi to attend 3rd round-table conference in JK

Srinagar, Apr 19: Democratic Liberation Party (DLP) chairman Hashim Qureshi today announced that he would participate in the third round-table conference to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on April 24.

With the announcement, the third round-table conference would have a token participation of secessionists as other separatist groups -- both the factions of the Hurriyat Conference headed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front led by Yasin Malik, Democratic Freedom Party of Shabir Shah and others -- have rejected the conference.

The DLP chairman had also attended the first round-table conference in New Delhi on February 25 last year, but boycotted the second conclave here on May 24-25.

Mr Qureshi announced his decision at a news conference here.

Mr Qureshi, who is the founder-member of the pro-independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, said he would highlight the problems of the people of the state. ''I would apprise the meet of the custodial killings, fake encounters, human rights violations and the overall situation in Jammu and Kashmir,'' he added.

The DLP chief said he would seek immediate release of detainees, easing of restrictions for travel on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus and redressal of genuine demands of the people at the conclave.

''I am going to represent the people of Jammu and Kashmir. I am their voice,'' he asserted.

The separatist leader said he had received the invitation from Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil some days ago.

Qureshi had hit international headlines at the age of 17 years when he along with his cousin Ashraf Qureshi hijacked an Indian Airlines Fokker Friendship plane (Ganga) on a flight from Srinagar to Delhi in 1971.

The aircraft was later blown up at the Lahore airport after the passengers alighted in the presence of then Pakistani leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Qureshi, suspected of Indian connections, was sentenced by a special court in Pakistan to rigorous imprisonment for a total of 19 years. However, later the Pakistan Supreme Court released him after he spent nine years and three months in various prisons and torture cells in that country.

On being released in 1980, Qureshi went on a self-imposed exile, first to the UK and then to The Netherlands where he was settled for 14 years before his return to India in 2000.

He is facing trial in the hijacking case in a local court here.

UNI