Srinagar
Indian immigration authorities prevented a former member of the so-called Legislative Assembly of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Altaf Ahmed Kaloo, from travelling to the United Arab Emirates, to attend a family function.
Altaf Kaloo, who belongs to the pro-India party National Conference told media that the authorities at New Delhi’s International Airport did not allow him to board the flight even after he and about one dozen family members were issued boarding passes.
He said that the immigration officials held him up in a room for three hours and didn’t cite any clear reason. Finally, they said I was one of 38 persons who cannot travel abroad till March 2021, he said.
“This was the first wedding in my immediate family. In Kashmiri tradition, a paternal uncle’s presence at a niece’s wedding is very important. I am very disturbed,” according to Kaloo, who said his wife, three children, and other relatives were allowed to board the plane to Dubai.
National Conference in a statement termed the move as an “infringement of one’s basic civil liberties”. “Former elected representatives are being treated like criminals and are having basic freedoms denied to them simply because they hail from Kashmir,” it said.
It is to mention here that several Kashmiris have been prevented from traveling abroad since August 05, 2019, when Narendra Modi-led fascist Indian government repealed the special status of IIOJK and placed it under military siege.—KMS
