New Delhi/Srinagar, Jan. 17: The three Pakistan-bound Kashmiri separatist leaders spent the whole of today cooling their heels in Delhi, expecting a call from the Prime Minister that never came.

Mirwaiz Umer Farooq’s team of moderate Hurriyat leaders leaves for Pakistan tomorrow to meet President Pervez Musharraf on Friday and discuss his plans to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

The team, which includes Bilal Gani Lone and Abdul Gani Bhat, played down its failure to get a meeting with Manmohan Singh, saying it wasn’t desperate for one. Lone said the group’s desire to meet Singh shouldn’t be seen as a sign of weakness.

A lobby within the government had strongly opposed the meeting, arguing the Hurriyat shouldn’t be allowed to project itself as a player in Indo-Pak relations.

Although the Prime Minister’s Office had sent no feelers to Mirwaiz’s team, some Kashmiri Congress leaders had been trying hard to arrange a meeting.

But the Hurriyat is still keen to meet Singh. “We have regards for Prime Minister Singh and President Musharraf. We can come back and meet the Indian Prime Minister,” Lone said.

He explained the purpose of the Pakistan trip was to seek clarification on whether Musharraf’s plan gives Kashmiris the choice to decide their future.

Singh had been under pressure from water resources minister Saifuddin Soz to meet the Mirwaiz. But the security establishment, led by national security adviser M.K. Narayanan, was set against what it saw as an attempt by the Hurriyat to become a mediator in Indo-Pak affairs. The Hurriyat wants triangular talks, which Delhi wants to avoid at this stage.

The moderate Hurriyat faced a challenge at home today with a strike called by Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s hardline camp — the first by one Hurriyat faction against the other — shutting the Valley down. It prompted the hardliners to claim victory for their stand against a Hurriyat-Singh meeting and the trio’s Pakistan trip.

The moderates, too, claimed victory. “People have rejected the strike. It was successful only at a few places after hooligans forced people to close their shops and disrupted traffic,” a spokesman said. While Geelani opposes talks and Musharraf’s self-rule plan, the Mirwaiz supports both.