NEW DELHI, April 18: The All-Parties Hurriyat Conference on Wednesday urged Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to invite leaders of Azad Kashmir to a third round of roundtable talks he wants to hold on April 24.

Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told Dawn from Srinagar that his group would attend the talks but only if the agenda to resolve the Kashmir dispute, with focus on the four-point plan put forward by President Gen Pervez Musharraf, was put on the table.

“We applaud President Musharraf’s flexibility in the quest to resolve the dispute. India has shown none,” the Mirwaiz, Kashmiris’ respected spiritual leader, said. “We don’t mind Kashmiri leaders who are inclined to support India to state their case at the talks. But preference should be given to the agenda for which our people have given the supreme sacrifice. The ball is in India’s court.”

Among those who have already declined the invitation to the talks with Dr Singh are JKLF leader Yasin Malik and Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who was recently given a passport by India but denied a visa by the United States for a medical visit.

“We are not going to take part in the roundtable conference if its agenda is to discuss the centre-state relations, rehabilitation of orphans and widows and financial assistance to Jammu and Kashmir,” the Mirwaiz said.

“They should talk to Hurriyat and militant leadership who represent the sentiments of the people,” he said, adding that Hurriyat would again go to the militant leadership and ask them to participate in the talks if India was willing.

The Mirwaiz made similar statements at a meeting he addressed in the Sumbal region of Kashmir, regarded as a heartland of pro-India militias, who are described by Delhi as “reformed militants”.