Srinagar, Apr 18: Members of the civil society including students, traders, sportspersons, unemployed youth and Hajj aspirants who have been denied passport by the government have started a campaign for the right to travel (CRT).
 According to estimates put forth by CRT, around 60,000 Kashmiris have been blacklisted by different government agencies for issuance of travel documents.
 “The population affected by this move of the state is enormous. We have decided to come together and fight for our right to travel which is our fundamental right,” said Rafi Punjabi, a social activist and member of the CRT.
 Denial of documents to such a large number of citizens, he said, was unheard of in the world. “Therefore, this is a single biggest campaign in support of the right to travel,” he added.
 “We want to know under which criterion and through which provision of law people have been made to suffer. Why has it not be made public?” he questioned.
 He said it was contradictory on part of the government to deny travel documents to the citizens since India was signatory of the universal declaration of human rights and international covenant on civil and political rights—both of which guarantee right to travel.
 He said the blacklisted students and the Hajj aspirants were the worst suffers. “Many students want to go abroad for higher studies. Also there are also very less employment opportunities in the state as a result of which many people intend to work abroad to earn their livelihood but they cannot in the absence of travel documents,” he said. The Hajj aspirants, he said, were also stopped from performing a religious obligation by denial of documents.
 Human rights activist, advocate Parvez Imroz said that group was not any NGO or a political one. “It is an initiative by the people who have been denied one of the fundamental rights.”
 Imroz, who also has been denied the passport, said that the passport was a mere document but the state was using it as a tool to punish people.
 Abdul Qadeer Dar, chairman of People’s Rights Movement—a civil society group working for rehabilitation of former-militants—said thousands of families of former militants and their relatives were blacklisted by police and other intelligence agencies for issuance of passport as they issued “adverse reports” their favour.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 18 Apr 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:00:00 IST