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PM regrets OIC naming envoy on Kashmir
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday that India has lodged a protest with the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to appoint an envoy on Jammu and Kashmir.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Thursday that India has lodged a protest with the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to appoint an envoy on Jammu and Kashmir.
"We regret that the OIC has got into this business and we have lodged a protest on this account," Manmohan Singh told a news conference here at the end of a two-day visit to the state.
The grouping of 57 Islamic countries Oct 2 appointed Abdullah Bin Adbul Rahman Al Bakr, a Saudi, as the Special Envoy on Jammu and Kashmir, a move seen as part of Pakistani efforts to internationalise the issue.
Manmohan Singh said India was not acting under any international pressure to solve problems facing Jammu and Kashmir, where a separatist campaign has claimed thousands of lives since 1989.
"We want a peaceful resolution of all the problems facing Jammu and Kashmir, both with regard to its internal and external dimensions. We do not believe in working under anybody's pressure.
"We feel it is in our interest, it is in the interest of the people of Jammu and Kashmir that relations between (India and Pakistan) should be what they ought to be between two neighbours," he said.
