Sinha denied meeting with Farooq

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, November 23

A delegation of the Concerned Citizens Group, comprising former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and former Chief Information Commissioner Wajah Habibullah, was here today denied permission to meet detained Kashmir leaders, including three former Chief Ministers of J&K Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.

Earlier in the day, the group was prevented by the authorities from visiting Pulwama in south Kashmir due to security reasons.

The group, which also includes journalist Bharat Bhushan and civil society activist Kapil Kaak, arrived in Kashmir on Friday to assess the ground situation after the revocation of the Article 370.

They were today supposed to visit some villages in Pulwama district and later to Shopian. However, they were told by the police that they could not visit south Kashmir due to "impending security threat to the group".

“We were given in writing by the SSP (Security), Kashmir, that there is an impending terrorist threat,” Yashwant Sinha told The Tribune.

He added that despite remaining confined to the hotel in Srinagar, the group was unable to meet a cross section of people.

Sinha also said that their request to meet Farooq, Omar and Mehbooba had been turned by the Deputy Commissioner, Srinagar. “It has not been given in writing, but we have been told that we cannot meet these leaders,” he said.

The group was served the security advisory on Friday evening, stating that Pulwama was a highly volatile area and due to impending threat they were advised not to undertake the journey.

Then in the morning today, the group decided to move to Budgam, but was not allowed by the police to move out of the hotel gate.

“The situation in Kashmir is far from normal. We were not allowed to move out today. But as the people in Kashmir are adaptive, the people in Pulwama and Shopian who were supposed to meet there, arrived here at the hotel,” another group member Kapil Kaak told The Tribune, adding that from the interactions with the people they could sense that there is “apprehension, anger and fear” among the people in Kashmir and that the “situation is far from normal” from what is being claimed by the government.Before winding up their visit on November 25, the group plans to meet more people in Srinagar on Sunday. 

‘Remained confined to hotel in Srinagar’ 

• A delegation of the Concerned Citizens Group, comprising former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and former Chief Information Commissioner Wajah Habibullah on Saturday was denied permission to meet detained Kashmir leaders, including three former Chief Ministers of J&K Farooq Abdullah, Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.
• “We were given in writing by the SSP (Security), Kashmir, that there is an impending terrorist threat,” Yashwant Sinha told The Tribune.
• Sinha added that despite remaining confined to the hotel in Srinagar, the group was unable to meet a cross section of people.