Hurriyat backs out of PM's roundtable

Chairman Mirwaiz Farooq said the amalgam has unanimously decided not to attend the meet as it had no agenda.

In a major setback to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's bold initiative, the moderate Hurriyat Conference on Monday rejected the invitation to participate in the second roundtable conference in Srinagar on May 24-25, saying it did not want to join "a crowd of political hypocrites".

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Announcing the decision at a news conference, moderate Hurriyat Conference Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said the amalgam has unanimously decided not to attend the roundtable as it had no agenda.

The decision was taken after a three-hour marathon meeting of the Hurriyat Executive Council, the highest decision-making body of the amalgam, the General Council and the Working Committee at its Rajbagh headquarters in Srinagar.