Govt faces heat over separatist Yasin Malik’s trip to Pakistan

Mangaloretoday/NDTV

Islamabad, Feb 11: The Indian government is under pressure to act against Kashmiri separatist Yasin Malik who appeared in public over the weekend with Hafiz Saeed, the mastermind of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.

"When an Indian meets a terrorist, we condemn this," said Preneet Kaur, the Junior Minister for External Affairs. The opposition BJP wants Mr Malik’s passport to be cancelled.  "Why did the government allow him to go there?  This is a monumental mistake by the Home Minister and we will raise this," said the BJP’s Prakash Javadekar.

 

Leaders from the ruling Congress have also joined the chorus seeking actions against Mr Malik. "Yasin Malik knows that Saeed is the convict in the Mumbai blast case. He should have objected the moment he came on stage. The government should do something," Congress leader Digvijaya Singh has said.

Mr Malik, the chairman of the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), was in Islamabad over the weekend on a hunger strike to protest against India’s hanging of Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri who was found guilty of aiding a deadly attack on Parliament in 2001. 

Mr Malik said that Saeed joined him on stage for about 10 minutes, and did not make anti-India comments at the hunger strike.  "I have met Saeed in the past as well ...and had told him (then) that the peace process should be given a chance...nobody raised a voice then," Mr Malik told NDTV.
 
Saeed, the founder of terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), moves freely around Pakistan despite a 10-million dollar bounty announced by the United States.

Will impound Yasin Malik’s passport if requested, says MEA

 

Amid concerns over Kashmiri separatist leader Yasin Malik sharing the dais with 26/11 mastermind Hafiz Saeed in Pakistan and demands for revoking his passport, the external affairs ministry Tuesday said if it receives a request for impounding Malik’s passport it would "act on it".

The external affairs ministry said: "If we receive a request to impound his (Malik) passport, we will act on it." Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said the passport was given to Malik, chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), after getting a "no objection" from other Indian ministries and agencies.

"When violation (of provisions of passport) is indicated... when it is brought to our notice, we will act," he said, adding that the government would act with Malik "as fit of a citizen of India".

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded that Malik’s passport be revoked for sharing the dais with Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed at a rally held to protest the execution of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday.

Akbaruddin said India has raised with Pakistan the issue of bringing to justice Saeed, "the evil mastermind of the Mumbai attacks". "Hafiz Saeed continues to pour vitriol on India...he is a fit case to bring to justice and we will do so," he added.

Earlier, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said the matter of Malik pertains to the home ministry and "I’m sure they will take appropriate steps. When they do, they will inform us".

BJP president Rajnath Singh said the government should "seriously" take cognizance of Malik sharing the public dais with Saeed. "The government should seriously take cognizance of this. It’s not a small issue. I expect this much from the government," he told reporters here.

BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu also criticised the government, saying Malik’s passport should be revoked immediately. BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said it was the home ministry’s mistake to allow Malik to go to Pakistan and the party would raise the issue on all forums.

Malik has said that Saeed was on the stage for 10 minutes and they did not exchange any words.