02051958  Copy of editorial in the "Daily Telegraph" on 2 May 1958

02051958  Copy of editorial in the "Daily Telegraph" on 2 May 1958

Arrest in Kashmir

Those who hopefully looked on Sheikh Abdullah's release from five years' captivity as a conciliatory gesture by the Kashmir Government will have been dismayed by the circumstances of his re-arrest after three months of freedom. Today's despatch from our special correspondent in Srinagar provides little evidence of the symptoms of public disturbance which, according to the Prime Minister, Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, his continued freedom was tending to provoke. It will not help to quote British precedents for such action without also listening to British experience. This preventive arrest of a political opponent can only damage the Government without in any way helping locally to reconcile Muslin and Hindu.

Mr. Nehru, who instigated Sheikh Abdullah's arrest in 1953, should find little to commend this repetition. Kashmir has been his most damaging failure. This episode can only serve further to embarrass India. Whether Mr. Nehru now. gives up his titular premiership or is persuaded by Congress to take only sabbatical leave, few can doubt that his will remain the most important influence that can be brought to bear upon. the unhappy condition of Kashmir. It is unfortunate that it could not have been made more apparent on this occasion.