Hurriyat names six-member team for talks with PM

SRINAGAR: The moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference on Monday named a six-member delegation for the second round of talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Delhi on May 3.

Besides Mirwaiz, five other Hurriyat executive members -Abdul Gani Bhat, Moulana Abbass Ansari, Bilal Gani lone, Fazal Haq Qureshi and Aga Syed Hassan - would comprise the delegation to Delhi for the May 3 talks.

The decision to this effect was taken at a joint meeting of executive committee, working committee and general council of the separatist amalgam, the Mirwaiz said.

He said Hurriyat was not against the concept of roundtable in principle but did not agree on the number of participants. "With so many people present, you cannot have a discussion but only noise... And we want to reduce the noise".

The Hurriyat chairman said the talks with the Prime Minister on Wednesday had no connection with the roundtable conference and the two things should not be linked.

On the agenda of talks with Singh, the Mirwaiz said the focus of the meeting would be resolution of Kashmir issue.

"We have no list of demands for the Government of India as we had in the first round of talks because unfortunately, no action has been taken on them since then," he said.