The moderate faction of the Hurriyat Conference on Tuesday said it will not meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir beginning Wednesday.
"There is no question of meeting the prime minister tomorrow [Wednesday]," the amalgam's chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq told PTI in Srinagar.
The Mirwaiz denied that he had, at any point of time, said the Hurriyat will meet the prime minister during his visit if the Indian government sent an invite. He claimed he was quoted out of context.
The British Broadcasting Corporation's Hindi service, in an interview on Sunday night, had quoted Mirwaiz as saying that the Hurriyat was ready to meet the prime minister "Our stand on any further talks with the government of India remains unchanged. We have held two rounds of talks with the previous National Democratic Alliance government and would like to visit Pakistan for holding talks with the leadership on the other side before the third round of talks with New Delhi," the Mirwaiz said.
He said the people of Jammu and Kashmir have high expectations from the prime minister's visit with regard to the political resolution of the Kashmir issue. "If the visit is only for an economic package, like giving money for schools and other buildings, then it would serve no purpose. It would give Kashmiris a feeling that the Indian government wants to buy them over," he said.
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