WASHINGTON: Sheh­r­yar Khan Afridi, chairman of the Parliamentary Com­mittee on Kashmir, was stopped briefly at New York’s JFK Airport for screening but was later allowed to enter the United States, said an official statement released on Saturday.

Mr Afridi arrived in New York via flight QR-0701 (Qatar Airlines) at 3:15pm on Sept 15. JFK sources claimed that Mr Afridi was stopped for secondary screening when he failed to satisfy immigration officials at his first screening.

According to these sour­ces, he was questioned for about an hour and was allo­wed to enter the country when the Pakistan consulate in New York confirmed his credentials.

A spokesperson for the Pakistan Embassy in Wash­ington, however, said Mr Afridi was allowed to go without any delay. “As a first-time visitor Mr Afridi was put through secondary screening briefly and was cleared in routine without any guarantees being sou­ght or given by anyone from the Embassy or the Consu­late,” the spokesperson said.

Later, Mr Afridi and top Kashmiri rights activists at a meeting agreed to help highlight Kashmir dispute in the United States.

Published in Dawn, September 19th, 2021