NEW DELHI, September 9: Kashmir's spiritual leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said on Thursday that the Indian government had denied him an Indian passport to travel for Umra. "I was given a country-specific passport valid for three months. The Saudis don't give visas if the passport is not valid for six months," Maulvi Umar told Dawn.

He is camping in the Indian capital, having written to Home Minister Shivraj Patil to facilitate his travel. The other two countries endorsed for travel in the time-bound passport are Britain and the United States.

"Clearly, the government here does not want me to travel anywhere else, much less to Pakistan," he said. Mirwaiz said his Indian passport was impounded two years ago over charges of "anti-national activity".