Masarat Alam gets invite for Pak Day function on March 23

Majid Jahangir

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, March 21

The Pakistan High Commission has invited hardline Kashmiri separatist leader Masarat Alam, who was released recently, for the Pakistan Day function on March 23.

Alam’s release had created a massive uproar across the country and even both the Houses of Parliament had witnessed noisy scenes.

It is, however, unlikely that Alam would travel to New Delhi to attend the Pakistan Day function on Monday.

“I have received the invitation from the Pakistan High Commission and I will not travel to Delhi due to personal engagements,” Alam said.

The invitation to the separatist leaders, including Alam, for attending the Pakistan Day function comes at a time when India and Pakistan have resumed the Foreign Secretary level-talks. In August last year, the Narendra Modi government at the Centre had taken a tough stand and called off the Foreign Secretary-level talks with Pakistan after its envoy met Kashmiri separatists.

The chairman of the Muslim League, Alam, was released recently and the BJP, which shares power with the Kashmir-centric Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in J&K, too, got embarrassed as the right wing party was not kept in loop about his release.

Alam, termed as a mastermind of 2010 street protests, was released on March 7 from a Baramulla jail after four-and-a-half-year detention.

Besides Alam, almost all the top separatist leaders from Kashmir, including Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, have been invited by the Pakistan High Commission for the function.

Recently, the Pakistan High Commissioner has also met Syed Ali Geelani and reportedly apprised him of the issues discussed between India and Pakistan during Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar’s visit to Islamabad.