Hurriyat to talk peace with Advani

Umar Farooq, founder of the main separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, said India had not honoured pledges made in January when the two sides held their first talks during the 15-year Kashmir insurgency.

"We will do some serious and straight talking in New Delhi," Farooq, who is Kashmir's chief Islamic cleric, told AFP.

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"In the last meeting some promises were made to us which were never fulfilled. We will take up these issues forcefully again," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, who will lead the talks Saturday, had at the January 22 meeting assured Farooq and four other moderate separatists that India would respect human rights and review lists of prisoners.

But separatists say only a few prisoners have been released and accuse the army of killing five civilians in February by using them as civilian shields against rebels, a charge the military denies.

One of the separatists who met Advani, Fazal Haque Qureshi, has pulled out of the talks citing "growing human rights violations" by Indian troops.

Hardliner separatists have formed a splinter faction in the Hurriyat and reject any talks with New Delhi, saying discussions must focus on the final status of Kashmir which has been divided between India and Pakistan since 1947.

Separately, Farooq said the moderates would attend a function March 23 for Pakistan's national day at the Pakistani embassy in New Delhi.

The moderates stayed away from the function last year after Pakistan showed support for hardliners in the Hurriyat.

India's efforts to engage moderate separatists come amid a normalisation drive with Pakistan. The two countries last month resumed bilateral talks after a hiatus of two and a half years.

But violence has continued in Indian Kashmir, with four rebels and a soldier killed in a six-hour gunbattle overnight in the forests of northern Baramulla district, according to a police spokesman.