Kashmiri group calls for polls boycott

"My party is for a total boycott of elections in the state," said Mohammed Yasin Malik, head of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) which wants independence for the Indian and Pakistani zones of divided Kashmir.

"I hope people will heed my call," said Malik.

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He also announced he was pulling his party out of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, a coalition of 23 Kashmiri separatist groups formed in 1994.

"JKLF is not part of any faction of Hurriyat," said Malik, who took his militant group into the coalition in 1995 after declaring a unilateral ceasefire against the Indian forces in Kashmir the previous year.

He declined to be drawn on the reasons for his decision to quit Hurriyat.

Malik's remarks come two days after a moderate faction of the alliance held a second round of talks with India and agreed to meet again in June to find a solution to the 15-year-old insurgency that has left thousands dead.

Media reports said Indian Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani had offered Hurriyat a quid pro quo that at the talks: if it did not call for a boycott of the upcoming poll the Indian government would recognise it as "representative of the popular will of the Kashmiris."

The moderates were lauded Monday by Advani for turning up for the talks despite the "tremendous pressures" they faced from hardliners.

"There has been a change in the attitude towards us as they agreed to go ahead with the talks with us despite pressures that they should not talk to any Indian government," Advani said in Gandhinagar, in India's western Gujarat state.

Muslim rebels and separatist politicians have boycotted all Indian elections since the rebellion broke out in 1989.

India goes to the polls in five stages starting April 20 in an election expected to return the ruling Hindu nationalist-led coalition to power.

"We have already launched our election boycott campaign alongside our signature campaign," said Malik of the JKLF's drive to gather signatures of those wanting Kashmiris to be involved in the ongoing peace talks between India and Pakistan.