Author: IANS
Publication: www.newindpress.com
Date: January 12, 2001
The Indian Overseas Congress (IOC)
in London has appealed to Home Secretary Jack Straw to block the efforts
of a pro-Pakistani Muslim member of Britain's House of Lords to whip up
anti-Indian sentiments over Kashmir. Balwant Kapur, the President of the
IOC London branch, said that Lord Nazir Ahmed's bid to purchase a double-decker
bus and use it to publicise the problems in Jammu and Kashmir is an attempt
to undermine relations between New Delhi and London. In his letter to Straw,
Kapur said: "Lord Ahmed is now trying hard to undermine our friendship
by propagating against India's traditional links with the state of Jammu
and Kashmir. He is trying to collect funds to buy a bus, which will be
converted into a mobile anti-India publicity machine." On Wednesday, Ahmed
confirmed that he is backing a series of fund-rising dinners to purchase
a double-decker bus, called "Muzaffarabad to Srinagar", but denied that
his intention was to embarrass India.
"I am not in the business of attacking
anyone," he explained in his telephone interview. "I am in the business
of stopping the abuse of human rights, whoever they are perpetrated by,
in the right of self-determination for the Kashmiri people, the implementation
of UN resolutions, or making them the basis for settlement." "The bus will
be called Muzaffarabad to Srinagar and it is to draw attention to the fact
that there was a bus service from Lahore to Delhi and there should be one
now from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar," Ahmed said. "Hopefully, we will run
it for one or two days between the Indian high commission and the Pakistan
high commission in London to draw attention. That bus will then move to
various towns and cities. Every weekend it will be going to a different
city and we haven't drawn up timetables yet," he added.
Ahmed, whose family is from Mirpur
in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, said: "We need to tell the British and
European communities that there needs to be more done to open up a dialogue
between Srinagar and Muzzafarabad." "The final solution has to be decided
by Kashmiri people on all sides, rather than by India and Pakistan. But
India and Pakistan need to be involved. I am interested in a permanent
stoppage of the continuing humiliation of the Kashmiri people and really
it's not in the interest of India or Pakistan to continue this dispute
for longer," he said.
