The surprise decision came after a marathon meeting between Yasin Malik and Syed Ali Shah Geelani, chairperson of his faction of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) in Srinagar.

Yasin Malik had said earlier that he would convene a meeting of his party members to take a final decision on whether to attend or boycott the ‘Eid Milan’ party by Friday evening.

Syed Ali Geelani had decided to boycott the invitation from the Pakistani High Commission. He had attributed his decision to Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir, which he said appeared to be “wavering” and “inconsistent”.

Mirwaiz Maulvi Umar Farooq, chairperson of APHC along with Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) leader Shabir Shah has decided to attend the function.

The Pakistani High Commission had earlier invited the resistance Kashmiri leadership for an Iftar party on July 4 but later cancelled it without any explanation.

Reliable sources confirmed that the Pakistani High Commission decided to call off the Iftar party with an apparent aim of not to “annoy” India and help create a “conducive atmosphere” for the meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.

Earlier in the month, the prime ministers of the two countries met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and BRICS summits, after which the foreign secretaries of both countries issued a joint statement. The statement cautiously avoided mentioning the Kashmir issue.