SRINAGAR, Jan 8: Dozens of Kashmiri separatist and religious groups agreed on Tuesday to form a single party structure to ensure a united voice in efforts to settle the Kashmir dispute, a top leader said.

“We want to give this coalition of ours the shape of a party,” Mirwaiz Omer Farooq, head of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, told reporters.

The APHC has been functioning as an umbrella group for more than two dozen separate organisations since 1993.

Mr Farooq said the groups had agreed that it was time that “everybody should get united under the banner of the Hurriyat.” “No party is going to issue any political statement.” —AP

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