BJP invited to meet Hurriyat leaders

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, SEPT. 1. An All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) team consisting of Mr. Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, head of the Awami Action Committee and former APHC chairperson, and Mr. Abdul Gani Lone, leader of the People's League and APHC founder member, is expected to reach here from Bangalore tomorrow morning on the last leg of their south Indian tour.

Their engagements in the city include an interaction with special invitees including leaders of political parties and social and human rights activists tomorrow evening. They are scheduled to address the press on Monday morning. They are visiting Kozhikode where there will be a similar interaction on Tuesday evening. The sponsors of the visit have specially invited the heads of all leading political parties including the BJP and the CPI(M) to interact with the visitors.

Mr. Mukundan C. Menon, secretary general of the Confederation of Human Rights Organisations, in a statement issued for the reception committee here today, urged them to exchange their views on the broad issues of human rights and natural justice in Kashmir. He expressed the hope that all of them would accept the appeal instead of causing disturbance to the visit.

He thanked the Sangh Parivar and the CPI(M) leaders for giving wider publicity to the visit by `blindly opposing' it even before it was finalised. He wondered whether they had a separate or collective hidden agenda to confine their opposition to the visit to Kerala. He hailed as democratic the stand taken by the Government towards the visit in spite of pressures from different quarters to prevent it.

Hartal

Meanwhile, the Rashtra Raksha Vedi has called for a hartal in Thiruvananthapuram district from 6.00 a.m. to 1.00 p.m. tomorrow to protest against the APHC leaders' visit. It called for downing shutters and avoiding travel during the period. It has, however, exempted newspapers, milk supply, marriage parties and other essential services from the hartal. It will also observe tomorrow as black day. Mr. K. Mohankumar, general convener of the Vedi, condemned what he described as the bid by the visitors and their hosts to spread hatred and terrorism in a place where peace and amity prevailed.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Southern States
Previous : CM seeks lower interest rates
Next     : Govt. faces risk in changing net addresses