Hurriyat's Pak visit: BJP wants to know what govt is doing

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday fired a salvo on the government over allowing separatist leaders to travel beyond Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir.

Jaswant Singh, former minister of external affairs in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, demanded to know from the Centre what action it had taken after Pakistan violated an agreement to allow leaders of the All Party Hurriyat Conference to travel to Islamabad on a permit that allowed access to PoK.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Singh released the letters written by Vajpayee and Dr Manmohan Singh's reply on the issue.

Quoting extensively from Dr Singh's letter, Jaswant Singh said Hurriyat leaders had returned to India after their trip but the government had not yet taken up the matter with the Pakistan government.

"Dr Singh says in his letter that Pakistan decided to invite them to visit Islamabad and other cities in Pakistan violating an understanding on these procedures that had been reached between India and Pakistan. I want to know if the government of India has taken up this matter with the Pakistan government," he asked time and again.

He accused the government of making peace negotiations Kashmir-centric rather then holding a composite dialogue with Pakistan on all outstanding issues including Kashmir.

"It seems that the government has given Hurriyat Conference leaders some sort of veto power and think that they are the representatives of the Kashmiri people. If our Prime Minister says that there is no place for third party mediation then why did the government accept mediation by the World Bank appointee in the Baglihar power project. We have consistently maintained that there is no violation of the Indus water treaty signed between India and Pakistan. I would like to know if there has been change in the circumstances that forced India to accept mediation," he asked.

He claimed that erstwhile National Democratic Alliance government led by Vajpayee never accepted Pakistan's argument that Kashmir should be the core issue.

"We spoke of support that Pakistan had been providing to the terrorist organisations and we had called for an end to cross-border terrorism. When BJP president L K Advani met Pakistan Pervez Musharraf recently during his week-long trip to Pakistan, he had again stressed the need to end cross-border terrorism. We believe that these camps are very much in existence both in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir and elsewhere in Pakistan," he said.

When asked if India should suspend the bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad following Pakistan's violation of the understanding on the travel permits, Jaswant Singh did not comment.

Also see:
PM replies to Vajpayee's letter