SRINAGAR, Aug 30: The All Parties Hurriyat Conference on Friday kicked off a campaign to boycott upcoming polls in occupied Kashmir, but a top leader offered an unconditional dialogue with India to resolve the conflict.

The APHC has already announced its decision to boycott the four-phase elections.

The Hurriyat is spearheading a campaign for the start of comprehensive dialogue over Kashmir involving local leaders and the governments of India and Pakistan or a UN-sponsored plebiscite to determine the wishes of the Kashmiris.

Senior Hurriyat leaders, addressing more than a dozen Friday congregations, urged Kashmiris to boycott the polls.

“By holding these elections India wants to present this (Kashmir) struggle as India’s internal problem,” Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat said at a 5,000-strong prayer congregation in Sopore, 50km north of Srinagar.

“Kashmir is not India’s internal problem. It is an international issue,” Bhat said and pressed people not to vote.

“It is our humble advice to the people not to associate themselves with these sham elections,” he said, as his followers chanted: “We want freedom... Allah is great.”

The APHC has boycotted all elections held in occupied Kashmir since its formation in 1993.

In Srinagar’s Jama Masjid, Mir Waiz Umar Farooq, the former Hurriyat chairman, said the APHC was ready to take part in “any polls linked to the resolution of the Kashmir issue”.

“We are not against the principle of elections but we will never become a part of polls which just elect governments,” Farooq said. Farooq also argued that successive ballots in the past 40 years have failed to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, in an independence day address on Aug 15, said his government would talk to elected representatives and “other organizations” after the election. He did not indicate if the “other organizations” included Mujahideen.

Hurriyat leader Umar Farooq also extended an offer for unconditional talks with New Delhi.

“I want to declare today that the Hurriyat is ready for unconditional talks with the government of India for resolving the Kashmir dispute,” he said.

“If during our talks with India, elections come up for discussions we will not shy away from discussing that.”

He also suggested a “phase-wise” dialogue on Kashmir and said a start could be made by involving the Mujahideen in direct talks.

“Start talking as polls are not going to take you anywhere,” he said. In Budgam two other Hurriyat leaders — Javed Mir and Aga Syed Hassan — addressed thousands before Friday prayers.

“We have come to appeal to you to boycott the coming polls,” Mir, who is the acting chairman of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), said at a gathering.

Hassan labelled the polls as “meaningless”.

DELHI’S STAND: The Indian government said on Friday it would initiate dialogue on the future of occupied Kashmir with elected representatives and other organizations after next the month’s elections for the held state’s assembly.