Four World Uyghur Congress Leaders to meet His Holiness
By Lobsang Tenchoe
DHARAMSALA, Apr 22: India has reportedly issued visas to four World Uyghur Congress (WUC) leaders, deemed ‘terrorists’ by China.
India has always been at the receiving end with China, however, after China’s obstruction to recent Indian initiative at the UN to have Pakistan-based Islamist militant leader Maulana Masood Azhar designated a terrorist by the United Nations Security Council’s 1267 committee, India has served a perfect pay back to China this time by reportedly issuing visas to four WUC leaders.
Azhar’s Jaish-e-Mohammed militant group is blamed for the Jan 2 attack at the Pathankot airbase in Punjab.
China is believed to have acted upon Pakistan’s behalf and India’s efforts at the UN went in vain.
China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying in her rewritten response to Press Trust of India (PTI), when asked about the reports that WUC leaders including Dolkun were given permission to meet the Dalai Lama later this month, wrote “I am not aware of the situation, What I want to point out is that Dolkun is a terrorist in red notice of the Interpol and Chinese police and bringing him to justice is due obligation of relevant countries”.
On the contrary, India’s former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal said, “India does not consider Uyghurs terrorists,” and added “he would personally applaud the Indian government for its move to grant visas to the Uyghur delegation”.
Dolkun Isa, along with the three other WUC leaders will attend a conference that starts from April 28 and will also meet with the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is considered a ‘violent separatist’ by China, during their visit.
“But I still have to make up my mind about coming to India,” said Isa who is a German citizen since 2006.
He was earlier detained in Seoul in 2009 at China’s instance and sent back to Germany after three day.