Yaseen to be cross-examined by Ijaz's counsel

The Counsel of US businessman Mansoor Ijaz will cross-examine Yaseen Malik, Chairman Jummu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), over the latter's statement that he did not meet the then head of RAW in 2000 as claimed by Ijaz during his testimony. In the memo proceedings on Monday, Yaseen Malik challenged that he would retire from public life if anybody could prove he ever met any RAW chief.
The judicial commission will resume its proceedings after it obtains an extension in the probe period which expires on March 31. In its last meeting, the commission directed Ijaz's counsel Akram Sheikh to submit a written request if he wanted to cross-examine Yaseen's statement before the commission.
Yaseen Malik in his statement before the judicial commission probing the memogate scandal claimed on Tuesday that it was in the last week of November 2000 that he was invited to a Kashmir Conference organised by a Mumbai-based think-tank Strategic Foresight at the Bristol Hotel, in the outskirts of Delhi. Some 70 to 80 people from Kashmir had descended to attend the meeting.
Yaseen further claimed that he made his presentation on the first day of the conference. In the evening, he (Yaseen) saw media persons swarming the venue. He was told that some person claiming to be an envoy of US President Clinton was also attending the meeting. It was for the first time he saw Mansoor Ijaz, according to Yaseen. Ijaz spoke at the meeting and virtually attacked and criticised Muslims and Kashmiris in particular, according to Yaseen. His utterances made our blood boil, Yaseen recalled. He even went to the extent of calling the Kashmir movement an outcome of radicalism financed by the Arab Sheikhs.
Yaseen said that he was incensed at Ijaz's speech and protested. "I grabbed the mike and spoke again that day, refuting allegations and removing impressions that Ijaz had created about the Kashmir movement". Next day, Yaseen got a message from Ijaz. According to Ijaz, regretted his speech and wanted to apologise personally. Yaseen said Ijaz invited him to his hotel room. Yaseen Yasin said he accepted Ijaz's invitation out of sheer of courtesy. He was staying at Taj Palace Hotel. When he received Yasin in his room, another person (who by appearance looked a native Indian) was already present in the room.
"The unidentified person in the room kept quiet during the whole discourse. He intervened once, and without introducing himself, attempted to persuade me to meet the then RAW chief A S Dulat. Earlier some persons had, through some friends, been persuading me to meet Dulat. But I had been repudiating such attempts," Yaseen stated.
He maintained: "I didn't pay much attention to what this unidentified person was trying to say. It was also a shock to me that a person was trying to persuade me to meet RAW chief. Earlier, even R K Mishra had tried to persuade me to meet Dulat," Yaseen told the commission". The commission will serve notices to counsel when Supreme Court of Pakistan grants the commission additional time to further investigate memogate scandal.
In another development, the spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad confirmed to Business Recorder that Ijaz never served the then US President Bill Clinton in any official capacity. "No I have seen media reports that Ijaz has suggested this was so but Clinton administration officials have denied these reports," the US statement said.