New Delhi: Kashmiri separatist Syed Ali Geelani on Saturday turned down Manmohan Singh’s invitation to attend peace talks.
Instead of attending the discussion, he called a two-day protest strike in reaction of prime minister’s letter.
"I have received a letter from the Indian prime minister’s office inviting me to take part in the roundtable discussions," Geelani said.
"I regard these talks as a part of a sellout and aimed at converting Line of Control into a permanent border."
"I call upon the people of Kashmir to observe a complete strike on May 24 and 25," Geelani added.
Like Geelani, other hard-line separatist politicians strongly oppose talks with centre and want India to declare Kashmir a disputed territory.
Moderate separatists are yet to decide about their participation and are scheduled to discuss on Monday whether to participate in the conference or to boycott it.
They stayed away from the first roundtable held in New Delhi on Feb 25 that was attended by pro-India Kashmiri politicians, but held two separate rounds of talks with Singh.
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