NEWS

Hurriyat to debate Advani's offer

By Onkar Singh in Srinagar
August 29, 2003 17:27 IST

All-Parties Hurriyat Conference leaders are expected to meet next week to consider Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani's offer to meet the conglomerate's leaders if they came to Delhi.

Advani made the offer while addressing a press conference in Srinagar at the end of the two-day Inter State Council meet.

Hurriyat chairman Maulavi Abbas Ansari was hoping to meet Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his three-day trip to Jammu and Kashmir, but nothing of the sort happened.

"We are indebted to the deputy prime minister for making the offer. The APHC executive would meet next week and give its response," former Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq told rediff.com.

He denied reports appearing in the local media that Pakistan-based terrorist outfits had threatened to liquidate the Hurriyat leadership in case they made any effort to meet Prime Minister Vajpayee or Advani without taking Pakistan into confidence.

When asked about his former colleague Syed Ali Shah Geelani's allegations that the Hurriyat has gone astray and was working outside its constitution, Mirwaiz said Geelani had turned down the conglomerate's offer to discuss contentious issues, and instead parted ways.

More reports from Jammu and Kashmir

Onkar Singh in Srinagar

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