Syed Salahuddin, chief of Hizbul Mujahideen, an alliance of nearly a dozen groups fighting Indian occupation in occupied Kashmir on Monday accused the South Asia summit of ignoring the people of Kashmir.
"The South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation (Saarc) ... is overlooking the historical facts and ground realities," said Syed Salahuddin.
The seven-nation Saarc summit has fuelled hopes for peace between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan.
Their leaders, President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, held talks on Monday for the first time since coming to the brink of a third war over occupied Kashmir in 2002.
In the lead-up to the meeting, Musharraf took the dramatic step of offering to drop Islamabad's decades-old demand for a referendum in Kashmir.
But resolving Kashmir's sovereignty in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiris was the only path to peace, the Hizb chief said.
"Ironically those delivering the sermons of peace are not respecting the wishes of the Kashmiris. Instead they are using every tactic to suppress the will of the Kashmiris," he said.
Salahuddin lambasted Saarc officials for failing to differentiate between freedom struggles and terrorism in an updated counter-terrorism agreement, which is to be signed by the seven heads of state and government.
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