Thursday, September 1 2005 18:06 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Srinagar: The moderate faction of Hurriyat today (Sept 1, 2005) decided to send a six-member delegation led by its Chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq for talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to pursue with 'seriousness' the dialogue to find a 'lasting and durable' solution to the Kashmir problem.

"It was unanimously decided to accept the invitation for talks by the Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, with a view to proceed with seriousness, imagination and courage to find an acceptable and durable solution to issue of Jammu and Kashmir in the larger interests of the people of the region,"

Spokesman Abdul Majid Banday read from a prepared statement after a joint meeting of the Executive Committee, General Council and Working Committee of the amalgam.

Mirwaiz would lead the Hurriyat delegation and had been authorized to nominate other members later, he said.

Highly placed sources said a six-member team would be flying to Delhi on September 4 for the talks.

Besides the four Executive Committee members Mirwaiz, Bilal Gani Lone, Abdul Gani Bhat, Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari Aga Syed Hassan and Fazl Haq Qureshi are likely to be included in the delegation to be announced tomorrow (Sept 2, 2005), they said.

The September five meeting of the separatists with the Prime Minister would be its first with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government and would be held nine days ahead of Manmohan Singh's scheduled meeting with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in New York.

The amalgam had held two rounds of talks with then Dy Prime Minister L K Advani in January and March last year during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime.