Srinagar, May 28, 2011:Police personnel arrested the prominent Indian human rights activist, Gautam Naulakha, at Srinagar Airport, today.
Noted human rights activist and writer, Gautam Navlakha was stopped at Airport in Srinagar by the police from visiting the Valley.
“Police officials handed over a formal order issued by the district magistrate. I have been deported back,” Navlakha told media men.
Lashing out at the authorities he said, “This is outrageous. They are not willing to listen to reason. This shows the level of control they exercise on people.”
Navlakha said that he has been frequently visiting the Valley for over two decades now and this is the first time his entry was restricted.
This was for the first time I had not come for work as I was planning to take trekking in Kashmir and to assess the current human rights situation, he added.
He said police offered to drop him at Jammu in their vehicle. "I refused saying that I am not a criminal," he said. Several close friends, he said were also prevented from meeting him.
“I had come on holidays along with my friend Sehba Hussain. I am outraged. It shows paranoia is unbecoming of the authorities,” Navlakha told media men. Navlakha has been asked to return to Delhi. “We have booked tickets for tomorrow to return to Delhi and will stay at some corner at the airport only for the night,” said Sehba Hussain.
Navlakha has been writing about Kashmir for several years now and was involved in many human rights initiatives, like the case of unmarked graves in Kashmir. His last public speech was in Srinagar on October 24, 2010 where he talked about the mass uprising in a seminar titled ‘Withering Kashmir’.
New Delhi based rights activists have taken strong exception to Navlakha’s restriction. “We need to ask for a stop to this senseless, outrageous harassment,” said documentary film-maker Sanjay Kak, who released a book on Kashmir this week in Delhi.