Hurriyat team barred from leaving

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, APRIL 10. Revealing continued confusion in the Vajpayee Government over an approach to the Hurriyat leaders, a delegation of the organisation was today prevented from leaving the country while the Defence Minister, Mr. George Fernandes, expressed a view that he would like the Hurriyat leaders to be sitting ``across the table''.

Mr. Fernandes was reported to have told a news agency that it was `necessary' to talk to those leaders ``who are the cause of the problem in the first place''. ``After all we are talking to our own people and we would like Hurriyat leaders to be across the table'

It appears that Mr. Fernandes has sought to resurrect his reputation as a `sensitive' Minister which he had earned as Minister for Kashmir Affairs in the V.P. Singh Government. At that time Mr. Jagmohan, as the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, was seen as advocating a `hard' line against militants.

The tone of Mr. Fernandes' observation also appears to be slightly at variance with the Union Home Minister, Mr. L.K. Advani's disclaimer that the Vajpayee Government had sent out any invitation to the Hurriyat leaders for dialogue.

Early this morning a four-member Hurriyat delegation was prevented from boarding a Geneva-bound flight from the IGI Airport. The team was scheduled to take part in the U.N. Human Rights Commission's annual meeting .

The four had managed to secure `accreditation' from various NGOs. Mr. Abul Majid Bandey (who generally officiates as the spokesperson for the Hurriyat in Delhi) was accredited to a group called `The World Society of Victimology', Mr. Raja Tufail Ahemd and Mohammed Amin were accredited to the `International Islamic Federation of Students Organisations', and the fourth member, Mr. Abdul Rashid Lone, was atached to the `International Human Rights Association of American Minorities.'

The Union Home Ministry sources indicated that the Government was convinced that these four would have used their stay in Geneva to mount an anti-India campaign.

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