M A I N   N E W S

‘Give’ passports to all seven
From T. R. Ramachandran
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Jan 10 — Opinion gaining ground in a section of the Atal Behari Vajpayee government is that all the seven executive members of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) should be provided with passports to travel to Pakistan.

This section firmly believes that having come this far in giving a fillip to Mr Vajpayee’s peace initiative in Jammu and Kashmir, a wrong impression should not be allowed to gain currency that the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is now beginning to back-pedal and set its own hard agenda.

It is argued that even though the government’s reservations about providing the necessary travel documents to the APHC’s Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Sheikh Ahmad Aziz might be justified because both of them favoured Pakistan-backed insurgency in J and K, it will not serve in unmasking the true credentials of these persons vehemently opposed to the peace process.

Though a decision on making available passports to all executive members of the APHC is awaiting the Prime Minister’s return home after his two-nation foreign tour this weekend, it is contended all stumbling blocks should be removed for the Hurriyat delegation’s sojourn to Pakistan.

That can cause some amount of unease in the APHC, a 23-party conglomerate. Serious cracks have developed with the APHC in dealing with Mr Vajpayee’s peace initiative. The APHC has emphasised that it will abandon going to Pakistan for talks with militant outfits unless valid travel documents or passports are made available to all seven executive members.

The visit of the APHC delegation to Pakistan will indeed provide food for thought to the Kashmiris who have seen a ray of hope in Mr Vajpayee’s unilateral ceasefire announcement last month and extending the same till January 26.

The traumatised people of J and K want Mr Vajpayee’s peace initiative to succeed.

Sources said the APHC delegation’s visit to Pakistan will bring to the fore their influence or otherwise on the foreign militant organisations operating out of the neighbouring country as also the role of the executive members. Their activities and indeed the outcome, if any, during their trip to Pakistan, is bound to have an impact in J and K.

There is a suspicion in the Vajpayee government that some sections of the APHC supportive of the peace effort in J and K are themselves averse to Geelani being granted a passport. Therefore, it would save them considerable embarrassment if the NDA government puts its foot down in making available passports to Geelani and Aziz.

Geelani’s presence in the APHC delegation in Pakistan might undermine the importance of the other members of the APHC delegation. In the prevailing scenario, their apprehension is that Gen Pervez Musharraf’s military regime in Islamabad will accord the primacy of place to Geelani because of his rabid pro-Pak stand and the hawkish approach that Kashmir should merge with Pakistan.

Meanwhile, militant outfits in Pakistan, especially the Hizb-ul-Mujahideen and Al Badr, have threatened dire consequences if Geelani is not part of the APHC delegation. The Lashkar-e-Toiba has rejected finding a peaceful, negotiated settlement in respect of the protracted Kashmir problem.