Jammu: A day after the Mirwaiz Umer Farooq-led moderate faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference rejected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's invitation to attend the second round-table conference, the Bharatiya Janata Party has also decided not to participate in it. The conference is scheduled for May 24 and 25 in Srinagar.

Addressing a joint press conference here on Tuesday, State BJP president Nirmal Singh and party spokesman Hari Om said they took the decision keeping in view the killing of civilians in Doda and Udhampur and the grenade attacks at Doda.

"If the people are not safe in any corner of the terrorist-infested State, there is no meaning of a round-table conference or a peace process. The whole exercise is nothing but an effort by the Congress to get political mileage," Mr. Nirmal Singh said. The party had appealed to Dr. Singh to postpone the conference and instead visit the victims of terrorism in the State.

Mr. Nirmal Singh charged the Centre and the State Government with neglecting the security of vulnerable targets in Doda and Udhampur.

The UPA Government was also criticised for adopting "a soft approach towards the terrorists, separatists and votaries of self-rule and autonomy."

`The only dispute'

"The Prime Minister has also failed to make the stand of his Government clear on the February 2, 1994 Parliamentary Unanimous Resolution that the only dispute between India and Pakistan which still remains to be decided is the political future of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir [PoK], including Gilgit-Baltistan, which are under the illegal occupation of Pakistan," the leaders added.

Panun Kashmir, an organisation of Kashmiri Pandits which was invited to attend the meeting has decided to participate. Chairman of Panun Kashmir Ajay Chrungoo said, "Having faced ethnic cleansing and political marginalisation for the past 17 years, Kashmiri Pandits would uphold the demand for creation of a separate homeland in Kashmir ... "

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