MUZAFFARABAD: A 14-member high profile delegation of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), led by its secretary general Hissein Brahim Taha, will pay a daylong visit to Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Sunday (today), officials said.

According to Raja Azhar Iqbal, director general of the AJK public relations department, the delegation would drive to Chakothi sector of Muzaffarabad division in the first part of its visit to attend a detailed briefing by senior military officers on the situation prevailing along the Line of Control (LoC) at a spot from where the bridge used for intra-Kashmir trade and travel can be seen with naked eye.

Chakothi sector was home to one of the two active crossing points from where trade and travel would take place between Azad Jammu and Kashmir and India occupied Kashmir, which New Delhi brought to an end on flimsy grounds ahead of its unlawful and unilateral decision of August 5, 2019 whereby the occupied territory was stripped off its special status.

In Chakothi, the OIC delegation would also interact with a representative group of residents who had suffered physical and material losses during the days of unprovoked and unrelenting Indian shelling, Mr Iqbal said.

On its way back from Chakothi, the delegation would visit the Thotha camp of post-1989 migrants from Indian occupied Kashmir on the outskirts of the state capital.

As many as 14,380 migrants from 2,783 families are living in private residences in Muzaffarabad, Bagh, Kotli, Mirpur and Poonch district.

The OIC delegation would also call on AJK Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas and President Barrister Sultan Mahmood at their respective official residences. At the presidency, the delegation was likely to hold an informal media talk, Mr Iqbal said.

In August 2021 a 12-member delegation of the OIC’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) had also visited the Chirikot sector of Poonch division for a firsthand account of the situation along the LoC.

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2022