Hurriyat Leaders Citizens of India, Can Meet Any Representative from Any Nation: GoI

KL NEWS NETWORK

SRINAGAR

All Parties Hurriyat Conference (g) leaders with Pakistan Envoy Abdul Basit in New Delhi on March 24, 2016.

Government of India has said that leaders representing The All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) are just like any other Indian citizen.

They can meet any representative from any nation in India, be it Pakistan itself. “But if the Pakistanis decide to meet with them, the government (of India) would object on the grounds that such meetings constitute interference in India’s internal affairs,” a report said on Sunday.

The right wing Hindu nationalist, BJP, led union government had cancelled the then foreign secretary Sugatha Singh’s trip to Islamabad in 2014 August in reaction to Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit meeting Hurriyat leader Hurriyat Conference leader Shabir Shah days before Singh’s planned trip.

Pro-freedom leaders addressing a public rally at Narbal in the outskirts of Srinagar in this Kl file Image.

“On April 28, 2016, the minister of state for external affairs General V K Singh answered a query, which had been received in the past, about the meeting between Shah and Basit. This time, the question was framed in the context of their presence at the Pakistan Day (2016) celebrations,” thewire.in reported.

Singh’s written reply claimed, “Since the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of the Union of India and these so-called Kashmiri ‘leaders’ are Indian citizens, there is no bar on their meetings with representatives of any country in India.”

The deputy foreign Minister said, “However, India has consistently maintained that there is no role for a third party in the bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan as per the Shimla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration.”

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