Author: ANI
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: April 26, 2005
URL: http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1337328,000900010002.htm?headline=For~these~Indians,~PoK~visit~was~nightmare
The bus between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad
may have been welcomed by Kashmiris on both sides, when it took off on
April 7 and 21 respectively, but for some of them going to Muzaffarabad,
the journey turned out to be a nightmare.
When they reached Muzaffarabad with
the expectation of meeting up with their long-separated relatives, they
found that the latter had been put in jail.
This triggered off protests and
demonstrations, with people like Mohammad Yousuf Bhatt, a resident of Srinagar,
alleging that the authorities in Pakistan were out to gag people in Muzaffarabad,
lest they reveal information that could show the situation in Pakistan-Controlled
Kashmir in bad light.
"Our innocent friends and relatives
have been arrested. Of them, 26 are in prison and more than a hundred are
missing. We are demanding to know why they were taken into custody. They've
been in prison and we aren't allowed to meet them.
"They were arrested because they
wanted to welcome the people on the bus from Srinagar. But, before they
could, they were taken into custody at the dead of night," Bhatt said.
"I do not know why the press here
reported the event wrongly. For instance, the local media was quoted as
saying that those arrested had demanded tea, whereas in fact they were
on a hunger strike and had refused the tea, for which they were brutally
beaten. Six of them have been injured critically. We are demanding their
immediate release," added Bilal Ahmed, another Srinagar resident.
The Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus was
hailed by both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf
as a historic step, and in their recent joint declaration in New Delhi,
both leaders resolved to initiate more such measures to increase contact
between Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control.(LoC)
But with such actions in PoK, it
seems Islamabad has a skeleton or two in its cupboard when it comes to
Kashmir.
