Hurriyat hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani may have termed the visiting Amnesty International team as Indians dictated by Home Ministry,but the global human rights watchdogs team did not appear hesitant as it trained its guns at the Central government. On Tuesday,a day after Geelani made the accusations,the Amnesty team members said the Union Home Ministry did not permit the rights group to visit Kashmir earlier but could not prevent it this time because the team members were Indians. The government did not allow us to visit Kashmir even this time but because we are Indian citizens,they could not stop us either, Bikramjeet Batra,who is part of the Amnestys two-member team,which also comprises Ramesh Gopalakrishnan,said. This is a compulsion for them. We are Indian citizens and they cant stop us from going anywhere we want to go. Amnesty International had continuously tried to visit Kashmir in last 20 years but often our representatives were denied visa. Earlier,Geelani had questioned the credibility of the team as it had Indian citizens. The (Amnesty) team comprises of Indians and they have come after permission from Indian Home Ministry. We dont trust them,we are not happy (about their visit), he told The Indian Express. Indians,no matter whether they are in (Intelligence Bureau),Amnesty or (United Nations) UN,give priority to their national interest. Geelani,in fact,said the report of the Amnesty International would be a Home Ministry dictation. The Amnesty team,however,said the Union Home Ministry denied them a meeting to discuss human rights issues. Before our Kashmir visit,we had sought an appointment with Home Ministry but they did not seem interested, Batra said. We even approached Joint Secretary,Home but nothing came out of it. The response from the Secretary was that you can send your report to us. On the second day of their Srinagar visit,the Amnesty team met the separatist leaders Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq,Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Yasin Malik,Muslim Leagues Abdul Ahad Para and members of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (Rajbagh faction). The team also met Hameeda Nayeem,a Kashmir University professor. The team,which is in the Valley till Sunday,is also expected to meet mainstream politicians and top functionaries of the administration. The team is likely to meet Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Friday. It is also expected to meet DGP Kuldeep Khoda and Chief Secretary S S Kapoor. The team plans to meet Geelani on Saturday. It is focusing on preventive detention . We wanted to start from somewhere. We would be taking other issues like AFSPA and unmarked graves as well, Batra said.
