The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Wednesday, January 3, 2001,
Chandigarh, India

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Bhat to select APHC team
From Ehsan Fazili
Tribune News Service

SRINAGAR, Jan 2 — The Hurriyat Conference executive body has authorised Chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat to nominate a delegation of Hurriyat leaders to visit Pakistan on January 15 for holding talks with the militant leaders and others there.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the seven-member executive committee of the Hurriyat Conference at its headquarters today. The meeting continued for more than seven hours amid speculations of the nomination of its delegation to visit Pakistan later this month. Earlier, at its meeting on December 21, the Hurriyat Conference had decided to send a delegation for holding talks with the leadership in Pakistan as a follow-up to the unilateral ceasefire offered by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.

“Since the ban on passports of Hurriyat leaders has not been lifted by the Government of India so far, the Chairman is authorised to constitute the delegation, so that he nominates the members when required. This decision was taken unanimously by the executive members”, the APHC stated at the end of the meeting this evening.

The members also called for a boycott of the panchayat elections in Jammu and Kashmir. A spokesman of the APHC alleged that the elections beginning later this month were a ploy to ‘sabotage’ the process of restoration of peace in the state. He said that on one hand, there were talks of the solution of the Kashmir problem and on the other, ‘an undemocratic’ process of panchayat elections against the wishes of the people was being undertaken.

Only four of the seven executive members of the Hurriyat Conference have the travel documents. They include the Chairman, Abdul Ghani Bhat, former Chairman, Moulvi Umar Farooq, Abdul Ghani Lone of the Peoples Conference and the JKLF leader. Mohammad Yaseen Malik. Shia leader Moulvi Abbas Ansaris documents were revoked after his return from attending the last OIC meeting which was also attended by the former APHC chairman, Mirwaiz Moulvi Umar Farooq.

The Hurriyat Conference has been insisting on the issuance of travel documents to its seven leaders. Hizbul Mujahideen supreme commander Syed Salahuddin has also demanded the travel documents be issued to all members so as to avoid any “misconceptions” over the Hurriyat delegation to Pakistan. Mirwaiz has also expressed the same views.

PTI adds: The meeting was held under tight security in view of the December 17 violent clashes between pro-Pakistan and pro-independence supporters of Hurriyat leaders at a similar meeting at the same venue.

Rumblings have surfaced in the 23-party amalgam and pro-Pakistan lobby has been insisting on the inclusion of fire-brand Jamaat-e-Islamia leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani in the team. In the case of Geelani, the Centre has made it clear that no application written or verbal, had been received from him.

Debate over Qureshi’s custody

NEW DELHI, Jan 2 (UNI) — Legal experts today battled at the Delhi High Court over the custody of Hashim Qureshi, a founding member of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), accused of hijacking an Indian Airlines plane in 1971, while the court extended his stay against taking him to Srinagar till January 4.

A Special Bench of the court comprising Mr Justices Cyriac Joseph and S.N. Kapoor was confronted with a ticklish question: can a person who has been convicted and sentenced for a crime in a foreign country can be prosecuted in India?

Qureshi was arrested, remanded in judicial custody by a lower court till January 11 after his dramatic comeback from Holland on December 29. Ms Mukta Gupta, counsel for the Delhi police, the state government and Tihar jail, said his second trial was maintainable as he was punished for illegal confinement of passengers and burning the plane.

There is a series of offences committed by Qureshi which include kidnapping of passengers during hijacking and robbery (of the plane) for which he has not been convicted. “The kidnappings and robbery were committed over Indian soil and hence the Pakistani court was not competent enough to take cognisance of these offences,” Ms Gupta told the judges.

She said while Qureshi had been convicted for offences in Pakistan, he must be tried for those committed in India. The Delhi Police arrested him following a look-out circular (LoC) issued by the Jammu and Kashmir government.

The court has stayed Metropolitan Magistrate Kamini Lau’s order to Jammu and Kashmir police for producing Qureshi before the chief judicial magistrate in Srinagar by 4 p.m. on January 1. The order was passed on an application filed by the Jammu and Kashmir police seeking his custody in the case registered in 1971 when Qureshi and his associates had hijacked an Indian Airlines Fokker Friendship plane on its way to Jammu from Srinagar, and finally blew it up at Lahore in Pakistan.

Qureshi had arrived here from Copenhagen in Denmark on December 29 while travelling on a passport issued by the Dutch authorities. Since he did not have an Indian visa, he asked for 72-hour landing permission. His travel documents show that he was to visit Kathmandu in Nepal after a halt in Delhi.

Mr Ashok Mathur, standing counsel for the Jammu and Kashmir government, told the court that investigation into the 1971 hijacking are still pending and Qureshi’s custody may be handed over to state authorities. He said if a person has not been tried for an offence under the state government’s jurisdiction, then the constitutional ban on second trial does not apply.

Qureshi, he said, was still to be tried for robbery which is punishable by 10 years and a fine, kidnapping which is punishable by seven years and a fine, aiding the enemy for which a death sentence or rigorous imprisonment for life can be awarded.

On the other hand, Qureshi’s counsel K.T.S. Tulsi said his client’s detention was against Article 20(3) of the Indian Constitution. “hijacking is one integral offence for which Qureshi has already suffered extreme hardships during his nine years’ sentence in Pakistani jail. He has already been tried by a court of competent jurisdiction. And second trial is barred by law if facts of the case are same.”

Mr Tulsi said competent jurisdiction of a court means having power to sentence, and not necessarily having territorial jurisdiction. Therefore, he said, the Indian metropolitan magistrate’s order was without jurisdiction and illegal.