According to Dr Shabir Choudhry, spokesman of International Kashmir Alliance, the Pakistan government has started harassing those Kashmiris who attended a Kashmir conference in New Delhi in May 2006.
Dr Choudhry said that when many politicians, leaders and activists from Pakistan-occupied Gilgit Baltistan were given visas to travel to India, "it was thought that Pakistani agencies have changed their heart and attitude".
Shafqat Inquilabi, a leader of Balwarstan National Front, who visited India recently is being harassed by the Pakistan government for talking freely in India.
Dr Choudhry said in his press statement, released from UK, that Shafqat Inquilabi had not committed any crime by attending the conference in India, which was organised by the Institution for Conflict Management to find a workable solution to the Kashmir dispute.
Inquilabi, as a representative of his people, has every right to speak on issues related to their problems in Gilgit and Baltistan. Inquilabi communicating to rediff.com, through e-mail, confirmed his harassment at the hands of Pakistan authorities.
"We are all freedom fighters and we are fighting against the clutches of occupying forces. Secret services are trying to harrass us, but we are not ready to succumb to any harrasment," he told rediff.com.
"I know such harassment is a part of our struggle. Now we are ready to face everything, including death because we are fighting for the deprived nation," he added.
"We go where death fears to go. Now people of Gilgit Baltistan are ready to face every risk for the freedom of our motherland from Pakistan," Inquilabi said.
"They need to understand that the right to hold an opinion is a basic human right and we cannot trample human rights in the 21st century global world," Dr Choudhry said.
Dr Choudhry said the heavy-handed approach of the authorities will only result in more resentment and more trouble and added, let common sense prevail and let people of these areas, who have been denied their basic rights for the past 58 years, plead their case peacefully.
