KL Report

Srinagar

A ten-member delegation of prominent women from Jammu and Kashmir crossed over to Pak through Uri crossing point along the Line of Control (LoC). Noted social activist, academician and chairperson Kashmir Centre for Social & Developmental Studies (KCSDS) Hameeda Nayeem and separatist leader and chairperson of Muslim Khawateen Markaz, Anjum Zamrud Habib have been denied permission by the government to travel across.

The delegation will attend a 2-day intra-Kashmir cross LoC women’s dialogue in Muzaffarabad under the aegis of ‘AJK Women for Peace Organisation’ (AJKWPO). The initiative is being sponsored by a German organization, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (FNF).

Earlier, the delegation members, who represented Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Ladakh regions, walked into the Pakistan administered Kashmir (PaK) territory through the famous Kaman Bridge at about 2:30 pm amid light drizzle.

Kaman Bridge, it may be mentioned here, marks the crossing point between Chakothi and Uri sectors of PaK and Kashmir, respectively. The crossing point was opened for divided Kashmiri families in 2005 as part of the ‘confidence building measures’ between the nuclear armed South Asian neighbors, India and Pakistan.

The delegation includes Prof Dr Nusrat Andrabi, Nighat Shafi Pandit, Prof Tazdin Joldan, Qurrat-ul-Ain, Prof Dr Effat Yasmeen, Dr Ravinderjit Kour, Prof Dr Rekha Chowdhary, Prof Yasmin Ashai, Prof Ellora Puri and Ayesha Salim.

Separately, Sushobha Barve, Aditi Bhaduri and Kalpana Subramania Sharma of the New Delhi based Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation (CDR) are to attend the conference. They had travelled through the international border between India and Pakistan.Formal sessions of conference would begin from Tuesday.

In September last year, a 16-member delegation from PaK and Gilgit-Baltistan had come to Srinagar to attend a 2-day intra-Kashmir women’s conference on women’s role in society, under the aegis of CDR in collaboration with the Srinagar-based Women for Peace (WFP).

Noted social activist, academician and chairperson Kashmir Centre for Social & Developmental Studies (KCSDS) Hameeda Nayeem and separatist leader and chairperson of Muslim Khawateen Markaz, Anjum Zamrud Habib have been denied permission by the government to travel across.

Hameeda has been actively associated with CDR’s initiatives in past several years and was very recently in Jammu to attend an inter-regional conference organized by the Delhi based NGO.

Expressing anguish over the government decision not to allow her to cross the LoC, Hameeda said “If the conference is meant to build peace, why they have been selective. We were not going for any training of  handling arms and ammunition but to carry a message to build an atmosphere for amicable, just and peaceful resolution of Kashmir dispute,”.

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