Thursday, January 11, 2001,
Chandigarh, India






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APHC may cancel Pak tour: Lone 
From Prashant Sood
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Jan 10 — Senior Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Lone has said that the statement of Home Minister L. K. Advani about not issuing passports to all members of the APHC executive amounts to interference in the decision of the Hurriyat regarding composition of its delegation to Pakistan.

Mr Lone said here today that if the central government “issues passports selectively, it is indirectly selecting the Hurriyat delegation. Someone else may also try to dictate the Hurriyat about the selection, but the Hurriyat wants to be left alone regarding the selection of its team.”

The basic question, he asked, was whether it was somebody in Pakistan, or the Hurriyat itself, or the Indian government that would decide the composition of the delegation.

Asked if the Home Minister’s remarks would affect the Hurriyat decision to go to Pakistan, Mr Lone said that the basic point was that only the Hurriyat should make the selections. “The Hurriyat may not go to Pakistan,” Mr Lone hinted.

About the repercussions of any such decision of the Hurriyat on the peace process, Mr Lone said it was up to the Indian government to take it forward as it was India which had initiated the peace process. "On its level, the Hurriyat had said that it will also contribute to the peace process by going to Pakistan and convincing all concerned that peace should be given a chance," Mr Lone said.

He said, “The Centre’s response yesterday came pretty much unexpectedly.” Mr Lone said that none of the Hurriyat leaders had so far received communication from the Union Government regarding passports.

Mr Lone, who has not gone to Srinagar for the crucial APHC meeting where the Home Minister’s remarks on the passports issue would be discussed, said that the ball was in the centre’s court. 
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Crucial meeting today

SRINAGAR, Jan 10 (UNI) — The APHC executive will meet here tomorrow to decide its future strategy following the Centre’s reported decision to issue travel documents to few of its leaders to visit Pakistan.

The meeting would discuss whether to give the Centre another chance to issue passports/travel documents to all the seven executive members or cancel the proposed visit to Pakistan, Hurriyat sources told UNI.

However, the participation of former chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani who is indisposed was doubtful, the sources added. The meeting has assumed significance in view of the Centre’s reported decision to issue passports to only a select group of Hurriyat leaders to enable them to visit Islamabad for holding talks with leaders of various militant outfits and the military government. 
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