New Delhi, 7 August — The newly-married Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Vice President Jawed Ahmed Mir and his wife were yesterday prevented from going on honeymoon to Katmandu.
Mir and his wife arrived at Indira Gandhi International Airport yesterday morning to board an Indian Airlines flight to Katmandu, but immigration authorities prevented them from doing so.
After checking in, Mir was detained for an hour during which he argued his case with the immigration authorities. The couple was eventually allowed to leave the airport, but only after the plane he wanted to board had taken off. There was no official word on his detention, but well-placed sources confirmed that a letter of cancellation was issued to stop Mir from traveling abroad.
A clearly agitated Mir later said he was stopped by the airport authorities despite the fact that he was only going on a personal visit to Katmandu. Mir had gotten married last month.
He claimed his detention revealed a government policy that on the one hand claimed Kashmir as an integral part of India but on the other continued its repression against Kashmiri people.
Meanwhile, leader of the All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, has asked the External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh to release his travel papers so that he can visit Saudi Arabia. Geelani has an invitation from the Muslim World League in Makkah. He is scheduled to attend the fourth General Islamic Conference in Saudi Arabia in early September.
Another Kashmiri leader said yesterday he had also applied to Delhi for documents allowing him to travel to Pakistan for talks. Shabir Shah, who heads the separatist Democratic Freedom Party (DFP), said he was keen to visit Islamabad “to talk to intellectuals and the leadership there.”
