Instead, advocate Mohammad Ashraf Lone will represent the Hurriyat Conference, which enjoys an observer status in the OIC, at the three-day meeting.

According to senior Hurriyat leader Shahid-ul-Islam, the Mirwaiz had received the invitation to attend the OIC meeting at Baku a few days ago.

The Hurriyat Chairman has accepted the invitation and nominated advocate lone to attend the meeting and apprise the participants about the ongoing dialogue process aimed at finding a lasting and peaceful solution to the vexed Kashmir issue, he added.

Shahid-ul-Islam said Lone has already left for Baku.

The Mirwaiz would not attend the OIC meeting as he is apparently pre-occupied with the three working groups which were constituted last week to study both internal and external dimensions of the Kashmir issue.

From this week, a delegate session of the working groups would be called in every district of the state. The working groups would discuss the alleged human rights violations and other measures.

The moderate Hurriyat onference had earlier rejected outright Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad's offer to send its representatives to five working groups, saying it was an "administrative matter and it had nothing to do with it".

"It is an administrative matter. We have nothing to do with it," well-placed Hurriyat sources told a news agency.

They said the formation of the five working groups was a matter between the Centre and the state.

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