Left MPs seek permission to visit Srinagar

Three CPI(M) and CPI Rajya Sabha MPs have shot off a letter to Jammu and Kashmir government seeking permission to visit Srinagar next week to meet former Chief Ministers Farooq and Omar Abdullah as well as senior Left leader Yousuf Tarigami.

In their letter, the MPs have said that they want to meet their colleagues Farooq Abdullah, presently a Lok Sabha MP, former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and senior CPI(M) leader Tarigami to check about their health.

The letter signed by CPI(M)'s Elamarom Kareem and T K Rangarajan and CPI's Binoy Vishwam said they would like to have a "friendly talk with them preferably in the coming week with your permission".

The Rajya MPs referred to the controversial "private" visit of 27 Members of European Parliament to Kashmir earlier in the letter sent on Thursday and addressed to Jammu and Kashmir Principal Secretary (Home) Shaleen Kabra.

"We believe that it will not be difficult for 3 Members of Indian Parliament to get permission for visiting the region. We hope you will be granting necessary permission for our visit to Kashmir and facilitate the meeting with our colleagues in the coming week," they said.

Both Farooq and Omar are in detention while Tarigami is not legally under detention. However, the CPI(M) has said that he has not been allowed to move out of his house or guests are allowed.

In Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, the Ministry of Home Affairs had said that Indian Parliamentarians were not allowed to enter Kashmir to meet people after the scrapping of special status to Jammu and Kashmir "due to security concerns".

Several Opposition leaders who attempted to visit Kashmir after the scrapping of special status were not allowed to go out of Srinagar airport raising criticism. Opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Sitaram Yechury, D Raja, Sharad Yadav and Ghulam Nabi Azad others were earlier denied permission to enter Kashmir.

The MHA had said the visit by MEPs were facilitated as part of a familiarisation visit at the invitation of a Delhi-based think-tank International Institute for Nonaligned Studies (IINS). In its justification of the MEPs' visit, it said meetings were facilitated for them as has been "done previously on familiarisation visits" for the delegation.