(Corrects year in paragraph 2 to 1996, not 1986) SRINAGAR, India, Jan 14 (Reuters) - A top Kashmiri leader returned to the region's main separatist political alliance on Monday, more than a decade after he was suspended for defying a call to boycott the U.S. ambassador to India. Shabir Shah, a popular leader, was suspended by the The All Parties Hurriyat Conference in 1996 for meeting the then U.S. envoy during a trip to the disputed Himalayan region. The Hurriyat, an umbrella group of Kashmiri political separatists, had disputed a statement by the U.S. envoy saying the separatists had held talks with the Indian government. Shah had subsequently launched his own separatist group. His return came months before elections to the state assembly, which Hurriyat has traditionally stayed away from. "Shabir Shah welcome home," Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of the moderate faction of Hurriyat, told Shah at a news conference near the "Martyrs Graveyard" in Srinagar, Kashmir's summer capital. "Shabir Shah's return will help Hurriyat to take this struggle to its logical end," added Farooq. Farooq appealed to other separatist leaders to join Hurriyat to ensure a united voice and settle the dispute over Kashmir, where more than 42,000 people have been killed in violence since a revolt against Indian rule broke out in 1989. Hurriyat, which wants the dispute to be settled with trilateral talks with India and Pakistan, split in 2003 when hardliners led by Syed Ali Shah Geelani walked out after the moderates decided to hold talks with New Delhi. Hurriyat says talks with New Delhi have broken down and the failure could push the next generation towards extremism. "Let us fight jointly to end Indian occupation," said 54-year-old Shah, who has spent 20 years in jails before being released in 1994. Last week, a top former militant leader, Sheikh Abdul Aziz, also joined Hurriyat. (Reporting by Sheikh Mushtaq; Editing by Y.P. Rajesh and Sanjeev Miglani)
A sticker is displayed on a door at a school for HIV/AIDS-infected children in Bhugaon, some 130 km (81 miles) from Mumbai, January 9, 2008. The school is among only a ...
