B3-1609/93

Resolution on the case of Mr Amanullah Khan

The European Parliament,

A.having regard to the arrest and subsequent detention of Mr Amanullah Khan, leader of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, by the Belgian authorities in Brussels on 18 October 1993,

B.aware that Mr Khan was attending a meeting, organized by the Group of the Party of European Socialists, which aimed at making progress towards finding a peaceful solution to the long-standing Kashmir dispute,

C.noting that this dispute has been the cause of several wars between India and Pakistan since 1947 and that, in the recent disturbances, many thousands have been killed and injured as a result of violence perpetrated both by various groups of Kashmiri armed militants and by the Indian security forces,

D.aware that Mr Khan was born in Gilgit in the then autonomous Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir, that since 1948 Gilgit has been under the control of Pakistan and that Mr Khan came to Brussels on a Pakistani passport with a valid visa issued by the Belgian authorities,

1.Deplores the arrest of Mr Amanullah Khan, if only because the Belgian authorities had issued him with a visa;

2.Notes that Mr Khan, in his address to the meeting organized by the Group of the Party of European Socialists, called for an end to the use of violence in the Kashmir dispute;

3.Notes that Mr Khan has been remanded in custody pending consideration by the Belgian courts of the request for his extradition;

4.Calls on the Belgian authorities to release Mr Khan at the earliest opportunity and demands that, pending his release, the conditions under which he is being held should be improved, in particular as regards his food and access to English-language news media;

5.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, and the governments of Belgium, India and Pakistan.