India on Thursday said that it does not expect Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to embolden various actors and organizations who/which are involved in spreading terrorism.
Ministry of External Affairs(MEA) spokesperson Arindam Baghchi made these remarks in response to questions raised regarding the OIC’s invitation to the chairman of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference to attend its foreign ministers' meeting in Islamabad on 22nd and 23rd March.
“We do not expect the OIC to encourage the actors and organisations engaged in terrorism and anti-India activities. It is highly unfortunate that OIC continues to be guided by a single member's political agenda rather than focusing on other important development activities,” the MEA spokesperson said.
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The spokesperson further said that India has time and again asked the OIC to refuse providing a platform to “vested interests” who use it to interfere in India’s internal matters.
“Govt (of India) takes seriously the actions motive of which is to destroy India's unity & sovereignty,” he said.
The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation is an intergovernmental organization which consists of 57 members.
The OIC calls itself the “collective voice of the Muslim world”. It has a permanent delegation to the UN and the European Union.
The All Parties Hurriyat Conference is an alliance of 26 political, social and religious organisations which was formed in 1993 to raise the issue of Kashmiri separatism. It was founded by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
In 2021, terrorist turned separatist Masarat Alam Bhat was appointed the chairman of Hurriyat Conference following the death of Syed Ali Shah Geelani.
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Masarat is considered more pro-Pakistan than Geelani was. He was said to be the key figure behind the massive stone-pelting protests in the Kashmir Valley for which the then UPA government had announced a reward for his arrest. He has been lodged inside the Tihar jail since 2015 under the Public Safety Act (PSA).
Masarat Alam was the local commander of a Pakistan-based terror outfit, Hizbullah.
