India to raise OIC stand on Kashmir with UAE

As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received visiting Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the airport on Tuesday -- for the second time in less than a year, signalling warmth in ties -- New Delhi is looking to raise the issue of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)'s repeated statements on Kashmir with the visiting leader.

Sources in the government told The Indian Express that UAE is an influential voice in OIC, and India wants to impress upon the country's top leadership that its statements on Kashmir are "counter-productive" and boosts morale of terror groups and pro-militant elements in the Valley.

"We want to impress upon them during the visit that the same elements which were responsible for killing five of their (UAE's) diplomats in Kandahar on earlier this month (January 10) are (also) responsible for the violence and terrorist activities in Kashmir," a top government source said. "Through our conversations, we will tell them that such OIC declarations only strengthen the hands of those forces, which disrupt peace in the country.

"We understand some of these diplomats were friends and relatives of some of the members of the delegation...we hope they will be receptive to our concerns." India had last year raised the issue of OIC's stand on Kashmir when Egypt's President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, whose country is also a key OIC member, visited India. But there has not been any visible change in Egypt's stance at the OIC so far, officials said.

New Delhi's public position has been that OIC countries had no locus standi in Kashmir, and senior officials have said there was a gap between what some of these countries convey to India in private and the stance of the organisation as such. Pakistan has been using the OIC to mobilise international opinion against India on the Kashmir issue.