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The three-member All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) delegation, which had come down to Delhi to initiate talks with the Centre, has left for Srinagar on Monday without doing so in protest against the crackdown on the separatist conglomerate's second rung leadership by the Jammu and Kashmir police.
The APHC has condemned the Sunday morning arrest of more than fifty of its members.
In a press statement issued by S M Gulfam, the APHC's press secretary in Delhi, the conglomerate claimed that the delegation - comprising of Sayeed Ali Shah Geelani, Abdul Gani Lone and Yasin Malik - was to initiate a meaningful dialogue between all the concerned parties to find a solution to the Kashmir issue.
"Even before the delegation could initiate talks, a sudden crackdown was unleashed on the second rank leadership of the APHC. More then fifty leaders and activists have been arrested and moved to unknown places."
"During the last two nights, at least sixty houses in Srinagar have been raided while details of such arrests and raids in rural areas are yet to come in," the press release said.
"In view of this unfortunate crackdown, the delegation has decided to return to Srinagar. The delegation has strongly condemned this undemocratic and authoritarian attitude of the government," Gulfam said.
The APHC has drawn the attention of the 'international community to the repressive crackdown and indiscriminate arrests of peace loving political leaders and activists of the APHC'.
The APHC termed the crackdown as the immediate response of the Centre to the 'constructive measures announced by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in his address to his nation for bringing peace in the sub-continent and putting to an end the violence and finding a peaceful settlement to the vexed Kashmir dispute'.
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