Srinagar, Apr. 16 : The moderate faction of the Hurriyat conference has said that it will not use the word boycott in the ongoing parliamentary polls in the state.

A decision to this effect was taken despite the fact that its hardline political faction has chosen to call for the poll boycott and even expressed resolve to conduct an anti-election campaign.

The decision was reached after a three day marathon meeting at the faction''s Rajbagh headquarters in Srinagar.

"Kashmir is a disputed territory and to hold sham elections in the state is a dubious act which will not affect the status of the dispute," the Hurriyat Conference said in a statement issued to the press.

"Polls have proven futile in the past and will prove so again," the statement added.

Thursday's statement only repeats the clichéd Hurriyat stance. "Election were never the issue with us. They make no sense in the absence of the settlement of the larger Kashmir conflict. Our position is that elections over the past six decades have resolved nothing. Kashmir problem as it existed at the time of partition remains the same. This election similarly will make no difference," the statement says further.

However, the decision today has been taken in the absence of the chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq who is in New Delhi for his medical treatment.

The omission of the boycott call is likely to create a further divide between hawks and doves and further splinter separatist leadership. (ANI)