The moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference, led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, on Saturday said it will not participate in the third round-table conference on Kashmir to be held later this month in New Delhi.
"We are not going to attend the April 24 round-table scheduled to discuss Centre-state relations or developmental issues," Hurriyat spokesman Shahid-ul-Islam told PTI.
The executive committee, the highest decision making body of the Hurriyat, has decided long back not to participate in such conferences, he said.
"It is our policy decision, hence we cannot be part of the conference," he added.
The separatists had boycotted the earlier two rounds of the round-table on the ground that they would not like to share a platform with parties who agreed Kashmir was an integral part of the country.
The third round-table conference will be held on April 24 in New Delhi. The decision to this effect was taken at a meeting Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday in which Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil was also present.
Announcing the decision on Friday, Azad said the meeting would discuss the recommendations of five working groups set up by the prime minister after the second round-table on May 24, 2005.
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