Summary The government of India is weighing JKLF chairman’s statements regarding Afzal Guru’s tragic end.
NEW DELHI:-After strong protest by Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik against unfair trail and hanging of Afzal Guru in Islamabad, Indian government is weighing the option of revoking his passport on grounds of national security, Indian media reported on Tuesday.
It also seems certain the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader will be questioned by Indian security agencies as soon as he returns home to explain his hobnobbing with India s most-wanted fugitive, almost giving Hafiz Saeed legitimacy as a champion of the Kashmiri cause.
Participating in funeral prayers for Afzal held in absentia by pro-Kashmir groups in Islamabad on Sunday, Yasin Malik called his hanging a "blot on Indian democracy". Malik is in Pakistan to visit his wife, a Pakistani national.
Even as the pro-freedom JKLF leader urged leaders from Azad Kashmir to organize public protests against Guru s hanging, urging the Pakistani government not to maintain silence on the Kashmir issue.
Indian government has been criticized for allowing Hurriyat leaders to visit Pakistan in the light of their meetings with Hafiz Saeed and Salahuddin. The Hurriyat has neither denied nor confirmed the meetings.
Malik s meeting has added to the pressure on Indian government that has so far allowed separatists to visit Pakistan keeping in mind an international audience among other factors.
Now, seeing Malik, who is in Pakistan on a private visit, on the same dais as Saeed has come as a rude jolt for the Indian agencies. "It is not unusual for Malik to make inflammatory remarks in Pakistan, but this time he has gone too far," a senior Indian intelligence official told ‘Times of India’.
"Saeed has an unofficial carte blanche from the Pakistani agencies to make incendiary statements against India. Given the sentiments and circumstances of Afzal s hanging, it was expected that he would exploit it to attack New Delhi yet again. Though Kashmiri separatists tend to echo anti-India chants when in Pakistan....but for Yasin to be seen on the same platform as Saeed is overlooking the latter s culpability in India s worst-ever terror attack,"Indian official added.
"Considering the possibility of his meeting terrorists and criticizing the government during more such trips abroad, there is a good reason to seize his passport," said the official.
Sources in Indian security establishment hinted Malik may be detained after he returns to India. Although there could be legal limitations to filing a case against him for an act committed on foreign soil, there is scope of some other charges being pressed against him.
Incidentally, Indian government had recently denied moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq permission to attend the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) meet in Cairo as Kashmiri separatists have earlier used the platform to attack New Delhi s Kashmir policy.
