Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of a Hurriyat faction, will raise the Kashmir issue, the beef ban in the State and the Union government’s approach towards minorities at the Foreign Ministers’ meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in New York.
On Friday, Abdul Aziz Alseball, Director-General of Cabinet, OIC, invited the Mirwaiz to the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 27.
Planning to attend the OIC meeting if the government issues him the passport, the Mirwaiz told The Hindu in an exclusive interview: “My focus area this year will be the recent decision, motivated by communal and divisive forces, by the local court to ban beef in the Muslim-majority area.”
The Hurriyat will request Saudi Arabia to prevail upon the Narendra Modi government to start a “meaningful dialogue with Pakistan on the Kashmir issue.”
“We are planning to send a memo to Saudi Arabia, which is a member of the OIC’s Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir, to use its good relations with India to help resolve the Kashmir problem. The Saudi government has the responsibility to raise issues concerning the Muslim world. When Modi visits Saudi Arabia in the coming months, he should be asked by the Saudi government to resolve the Kashmir issue,” the Mirwaiz said.
“Under the garb of courts, the communal forces are trying to tamper with the Muslim-majority status of Jammu and Kashmir. Besides, the BJP governments across India are coming up with ordinances and laws curtailing the rights of minorities.”
While seeking the OIC’s help to resolve the Kashmir issue, the Hurriyat chairman said he would underline “the growing fear among minorities in India.” “Minorities are being pushed to the wall in India,” he alleged.
He is roping in the OIC Contact Group to visit Jammu and Kashmir to “ascertain human rights conditions.” The OIC has described the Hurriyat as “true representatives of Jammu and Kashmir” and granted it observer status. In the past, India had reacted sharply to OIC statements on Kashmir, saying the OIC had no locus standi on the internal issues of the country.
