5 terror outfits threaten to disrupt J&K round table

SRINAGAR: Ahead of the Prime Minister's second round table conference on Kashmir scheduled here on May 24, four militant outfits have warned separatist leaders in Jammu and Kashmir to stay away from the meet.

In a joint statement, Al-Nasireen, Farzandan-e-Millat, Save Kashmir Movement and Al-Arifeen believed to be shadow groups of pro-Pakistan Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad, said "we have completed all preparations to disrupt the round table conference."

The statement, carried by almost all local newspapers in the Kashmir Valley, said tripartite or bilateral talks and conferences were putting the Kashmir issue into the cold storage and its solution lay only in the UN resolutions.

It claimed nothing concrete had emerged from the first round table conference convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh held at New Delhi.

The outfits came into the limelight after a suicide attack carried out to disrupt the launch of the Srinagar- Muzaffarabad bus service in April last year and issued similar threats in the run-up to opening of the LoC crossing points.

The Hurriyat moderate faction of Mirwaiz Umer Farooq has said it would take a final decision tomorrow on whether to attend the round table meet while the hardliners led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani has turned down the Prime Minister's invite.