Srinagar
In occupied Kashmir, Indian authorities did not allow a conference on Kashmir in which senior Congress leader, Mani Shankar Aiyar was invited to participate as a chief guest.
The function was scheduled to be held at a local hotel in Srinagar, the other day. The Congress leader said he arrived in Srinagar on Friday for the conference at the invitation of O P Shah, the organizer of the event.
Mani Shankar Aiyar said that he was put under detention in the hotel and police stopped people who were to attend the conference titled ‘Jammu and Kashmir- The Road Ahead and organised by an NGO, the Centre for Peace and Progress.
“In the morning (on Saturday), police arrived and told Mr Shah, when I was on a morning walk, that he is not allowed to hold the meeting which was scheduled at 1pm at the hotel in which we are staying. After that he called me and asked me to return to the hotel as quickly as possible. A policeman came and said he was under orders to inform Mr Shah that the meeting would not take place,” Aiyar told media over phone from the hotel.
There seems to be a strange sort of a “hotel arrest”, he said.
“I read in the newspapers how the envoys were shown that there was normalcy here and I wish they had seen the condition in which Mr Shah and I are in.
We came here as Indians, this is an unbreakable and ‘atoot ang’ of India, to meet our co-Indians and we find that our co-Indians are being denied their rights,” Aiyar said. The Shah-led organisation has been regularly holding meetings in Jammu, Srinagar and New Delhi.—KMS
