Pugwash Conference on Kashmir postponed yet again

Srinagar, May 28 (UNI) The two-day Pugwash Conference, scheduled to be held at Mumbai from June 3, has been postponed yet again as several leaders from Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) were denied visa by India.

CPI(M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami told UNI that the Pugwash Conference on World Affairs, an American think tank, has been postponed for the time being.

''The Conference in Mumbai has been postponed as the Indian Government of India had not given visa clearance to several leaders from across the border to travel to Mumbai,'' he added.

No new dates have been fixed for the meet, Mr Tarigami said.

This was for the second time that the Pugwash Conference has been postponed in the recent past after India refused visa to several leaders from Pakistan and PoK.

Earlier, the two-day conclave proposed at Kochi in Kerala from April 22, but had been postponed as India denied visa to several leaders from across the border.

However, the organisers officially stated that the meet had been postponed as it coincided with the third round-table conference on Jammu and Kashmir chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi on April 24.

Moderate Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Yasin Malik, Democratic Freedom Party president Shabir Ahmed Shah and Peoples Conference chairman Sajjad Ghani Lone were among the separatist leaders expected to attend the conference.

Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti, National Conference chief Omar Abdullah, Peoples Democratic Front chairman Hakeem Mohammad Yaseen besides Mr Tarigami were among the mainstream leaders invited to the meet.

Former Pakistan Army chief Jehangir Karamat, former Pakistan High Commissioner in India Aziz Ahmed Khan, former PoK Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan were those invited from across the border.

The Pugwash Conference, earlier held in Islamabad and Kathmandu, discussed efforts and measures to build institutions for peace in Jammu and Kashmir and improving cooperation and communication across the Line of Control (LoC).

UNI