VISA U-TURN ON CHINESE ‘DISSIDENT’

Taking a sharp U-turn, India has cancelled the visa given to a leading Chinese dissident to participate in a conference at Dharamsala, which was to be attended by Dalai Lama.

New Delhi has apparently done this under pressure from China which had dubbed the dissident a terrorist.

The Indian decision last week to give a visa to the dissident leader from China’s volatile Muslim-dominated Xinjiang province had come in the backdrop of Beijing blocking in UN India's bid to designate Pathankot attack mastermind Masood Azhar as a terrorist.

"We have cancelled the visa given to Dolkun Isa," a Home Ministry spokesperson said without elaborating further. Government sources, however, said the dissident leader's visa was cancelled after India learnt that he had an Interpol red corner notice against him. China had referred to the Interpol notice against Isa and said bringing him to justice was a "due obligation of relevant countries." Dolkun Isa is a Uyghur activist based in Germany. China accuses him of terror activities in the remote Xinjiang region where there is frequent violence between the local Uyghur population and the authorities. Reacting to the Indian move, Isa said, "On April 23, I got a very short note from the Indian side that my visa is cancelled. There was no explanation." However, Isa's name does not figure in the list of wanted people published by the Interpol. According to the Interpol charter, if the requesting country wishes, the international organisation does not put up the name of the wanted person on its website.