Bloodstains being washed from a road in Srinagar where a grenade attack injured several civilians and security personnel on Monday. One person died in the series of strikes that militants carried out in the Valley. (PTI)

Srinagar, May 22: The moderate Hurriyat faction today rejected the Prime Minister’s invite to the Srinagar round-table conference, but kept the lines of communication open by saying it would be glad to meet him on the sidelines of the May 24-25 talks.

A statement by the moderates’ leader made it clear the intention was only to deny legitimacy to the Kashmiri groups joining the talks, whom he described as a “crowd”.

“We don’t wish to be part of the crowd that comprises political hypocrites and surrendered militants (Ikhwanis) with no agenda,” Mirwaiz Omar Farooq said after a meeting of his faction’s executive committee and general council.

“We are ready to meet the Prime Minister here, if he so wished, to take forward the process already in place.”

A senior home ministry official, however, said the government had found the offer “not even worth considering”.

The Hurriyat decision comes at a time when militants have not only threatened to target those who attend the conference but have flexed their muscle by killing five persons at a Congress rally here yesterday and two more in four blasts today.

A man died and 22 were injured as militants threw grenades at security personnel in the Rainwari, Babarbar Shah and Fatehkadal localities. A fourth grenade attack, on a tourist minibus in Souri late in the evening, killed the driver and injured four passengers, all from Madhya Pradesh.

The Mirwaiz’s snub to the “crowd” angered National Conference chief Omar Abdullah, who threatened to pull out of the conference if the Prime Minister met the Hurriyat on its sidelines.

“We will not participate at all. And I think other like-minded political parties should also abstain,” he said.

The Mirwaiz has all along been advocating talks with both New Delhi and Islamabad for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

It was to this that Abdullah pointed, asking why the Hurriyat was being so rigid when Pakistan had recognised the National Conference and President Pervez Musharraf had met him separately.

“I wonder where did the principles of Hurriyat vanish when they were sharing the dais with me, representatives of (the) BJP, Congress and other mainstream political parties in Islamabad in March this year,” he said.

Close shave

The Mirwaiz’s bullet-proof car was today hit by his escort Gypsy, which collided with a Tata 407 passenger vehicle.

The Mirwaiz suffered stress in his back but doctors conducted some tests and said there was no damage.