Kashmir's separatist alliance Saturday rejected the Indian government's offer of talks and said it would not participate in the upcoming state elections.
Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani offered to meet separatist leaders in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir to persuade them not to boycott the elections – seen as key for the troubled region's stability.
"Democracy is sweet but when it is thrust on people it becomes painful," Abdul Ghani Bhat, chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, Kashmir's separatist alliance, said in Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu-Kashmir.
Bhat's term as chairman was extended Saturday for another year by the Hurriyat's top leadership. He dismissed the call for talks as "old wine in a new bottle."
Advani made the offer Friday in New Delhi during a meeting with Ram Jethmalani, a lawyer and former justice minister who is leading a private initiative that seeks participation of separatist groups in legislative balloting in Kashmir, India's only majority Muslim state.
The Hurriyat, an umbrella organization of nearly two dozen separatist political and religious groups, has decided not to field candidates for the contest, scheduled for September and October. The Indian government reportedly is trying to prevent a situation where only pro-Indian candidates run unopposed.
Jethmalani said the deputy prime minister authorized him to extend an "open invitation" to the alliance. Advani also said he was willing to meet with "anyone from the state (Kashmir) who has any relevant issue to discuss with him," according to Jethmalani.
Jethmalani heads a committee of private citizens including prominent journalists and human rights activists who are trying to bring the two sides together. He is likely to make another attempt to persuade the separatist leaders to open talks in the coming days.
New Delhi has been trying hard to secure the participation of separatist groups to give credibility to the election and deflate a decade-old insurgency that has killed more than 60,000 people in the Indian part of Kashmir.
The Himalayan province is divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety. Muslim guerrillas have been fighting Indian security forces since 1989.
The rebels have said they would oppose anyone who takes part in the elections.
"Our principal stand is clear and categorical that anybody who is directly participating in forthcoming assembly elections is Kashmir is our target," Ghulam Rasool Shah, supreme commander of one of the rebel groups, Jamiat-ul Mujahedeen, told the local News And Feature Agency.
Separatist political groups have
boycotted past elections in Indian-controlled Kashmir, claiming they were
rigged.