Pakistan requests for emergency meeting of OIC Contact Group on Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has requested to arrange an emergency meeting of the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) Kashmir-focused wing over the escalating tension in the occupied valley after Pulwama attack. 

According to a notification issued on Sunday by the OIC Contact Group on Kashmir, the meeting is slated to be held in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on February 26.

“The General Secretariat […] has the honor to inform that on the request of Islamic Republic of Pakistan a meeting of the Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir at the level of Permanent Representatives will be held at the OIC General Secretariat on 26th February 2019 at 11 AM,” the notification read.

The permanent ambassadors of the OIC’s member states will part take in the upcoming meeting on held Kashmir, the notification added.

There has been a considerable build-up of Indian forces across occupied Kashmir after February 14 Pulwama incident in which over 40 soldiers were killed. Since then, the situation has been highly volatile across the territory.

Furthermore, the anti-Kashmir sentiments have been on rise in entire India, leading to several harassment incidents of Kashmiris by extremist groups.

The Pulwama attack

On 14 February 2019, a convoy of vehicles carrying security personnel on the Jammu Srinagar National Highway was attacked by a vehicle-borne suicide bomber at Lethpora in the Pulwama district of India-Ocuupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The attack resulted in the death of more than 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel and the attacker. The responsibility for the attack was claimed by the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed. A local youth named Adil Ahmed Dar was identified as the attacker.

Indian media and politicians have since been blaming Pakistan for the attack without any evidence.