SRINAGAR, 9 March 2006 — India refused permission to a top Kashmiri separatist leader to travel to rival Pakistan on a short visit, sources said.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a separatist leader, said yesterday he has been refused permission by the government to travel to Pakistan for a three-day international conference on the insurgency-hit region.
The refusal to grant Geelani a passport comes as India and Pakistan are engaged in a slow-moving peace process to settle their dispute over Kashmir that each holds in part but claims in full.
“I was willing to attend the meeting but I have been refused a passport by India,” said Geelani, who heads the hard-line faction of the separatist All-Parties Hurriyat Conference.
There was no immediate comment available from the passport office in Srinagar.
Moderate separatists who renounce violence, including Yasin Malik of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, were granted permission to travel and are now in Pakistan to attend the Pugwash Conference on Kashmir.
India Protests Proposed Dam
India protested yesterday against a Pakistani proposal to build a dam in Kashmir, the Himalayan territory which is divided between the two rivals but claimed in full by both. The Indian Foreign Ministry quoted media reports saying that the planned Bhasha Dam in Pakistan-administered Kashmir would flood large areas as a reservoir built up behind the dam.
While this would affect Pakistani-held territory, India claims the area as part of its northern state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The ministry said India had protested to Pakistan through diplomatic channels.
