Hurriyat wants passports for all trip members

Hurriyat wants passports for all trip members
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

SRINAGAR, JAN 12: Hurriyat Conference today made it clear that its delegation will not go to Pakistan unless all the five members are given passports.

‘‘We are not going for a pleasure trip to Pakistan. The delegation of Hurriyat will not go to Pakistan if the passports are not issued to all the five members announced by the executive of the 23-party alliance yesterday,’’ Hurriyat chairman Abdul Gani Bhat said here.

However, he expressed the hope that the Centre will take a positive decision and issue travel documents to all the delegation members to undertake the visit on the scheduled date.

Two members of the delegation -- Maulana Abbas Ansari and Sheikh Abdul Aziz -- do not have passports.

Reacting to the statement of the Union Home Minister L K Advani that the Government will not be guided by the kind of stand the Hurriyat takes, Bhat said, ‘‘We too do not want our delegation to be named by New Delhi.’’

Asked whether there was any pressure on him from any quarter in deciding the composition of the delegation, Bhat said, ‘‘We don’t succumb to pressures. There was no pressure from any quarter on the Hurriyat leadership over finalisation of the team.’’ ‘‘It was purely our own decision and there was no role for anybody in the composition of the delegation,’’ Bhat added. He dismissed press reports that firebrand Jamat-e-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani was included in the team following telephone-calls from an ‘‘unfamiliar militant outfit’’.

Bhat said he opted out from the delegation as he was authorised by the executive to choose the delegation among the members.