Roundtable too crowded for us: Hurriyat

8220;They New Delhi have already called 36 parties and Hurriyat is the 37th. They have invited former renegades and sponsored parties. How can we sit with Captain Tikoo and Hashim Qureshi? What will we talk to them? This is a disrespect to Kashmiri representation. They are trying to divide us on the basis of caste, creed and religion.8217;8217;

He said the Hurriyat, however, was committed to the direct dialogue with the Centre. 8216;8216;We Hurriyat have a difference in opinion with New Delhi regarding the future of J038;K, not NC or PDP or Congress. So they should have first allowed direct talks with us to reach somewhere before we could sit and talk to this crowd,8217;8217; he said. 8220;Our dialogue process with them New Delhi has not reached anywhere as yet, so how will expanding the dialogue to pro-India groups help at this stage8230;This roundtable is in any case a half circle as there is no representation from across the Line of Control.8217;8217;

However, the roots of the Hurriyat8217;s refusal, sources said, lie in the details of the talks process between India and Pakistan. Islamabad, sources say, is not happy about New Delhi8217;s 8220;non-concessive approach on Kashmir despite several flexible proposals coming from President Pervez Musharraf.8217;8217;

As both militancy and Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani have lost their 8220;favoured8221; status in Islamabad, moderate Hurriyat8217;s new affinity with Musharraf is becoming Islamabad8217;s only tool to armtwist New Delhi.

And Hurriyat moderates, who are already engaged in a direct dialogue with New Delhi, do not want to lose Pakistan8217;s blessings as well.

Then there is a domestic political challenge. Both the NC and PDP are rallying around Musharraf8217;s demilitarisation and self-rule slogan and the Hurriyat feels that the roundtable involving these two mainstream parties will hold the risk of mainstreaming the Hurriyat and divesting it of its distinct 8220;separatist identity.8221;

8220;We won8217;t run ourselves into a trap. We don8217;t understand what India hopes to achieve in a roundtable that it cannot in an institutionalised, structured dialogue with the separatists,8221; Hurriyat leader Bilal Lone said. 8220;This roundtable is nothing but an attempt to marginalise Hurriyat8221;.

Hurriyat moderates also want to usurp the hardline space of Syed Ali Shah Geelani8217;s faction especially as he and his party have fallen out of Pakistan8217;s favour.

with inputs from Riyaz Wani