Fate of Mirwaiz’s passport depends on police report

SRINAGAR: Srinagar Passport Office is waiting for the police verification report, following which the fate of the passport of Hurriyat Conference (M) Chairman, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, would be decided.
Regional Passport Officer, Srinagar, Brij Bushan Nagar, said that they were yet to receive police verification report for renewal of Mirwaiz’s passport.
“Once we receive the verification report, we issue the passport next day. We are dependent on police verification. We have not received verification report for renewal of passport to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq so far,” Nagar told The Kashmir Monitor.
“Issuing a passport all depends on the verification report of the police.”
A police official said that they won’t share any information about verification report of Mirwaiz.
“Verification report remains a confidential till it is submitted to Srinagar Passport Office,” the police official said, wishing anonymity.
Mirwaz did not receive phone calls. However, sources within the Hurriyat said that he has applied for renewal of his passport to go Saudi Arabia for Umrah.
“Mirwaiz’s short validity passport (SVP) was not renewed after it expired in 2013 and he has not been allowed to travel abroad for the past many years,” a Hurriyat leader, said.
During the last several years, he said that Mirwaiz was not allowed to participate in meetings of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). “He was invited number of times but was not allowed to travel abroad,” he added.
According to reports, Mirwaiz’s passport was not renewed after he met Hafiz Saeed and Syed Salahuddin during a visit to Pakistan.
Except few, most of the Hurriyat leaders have been denied passport by the government.
Hurriyat Conference (G) Syed Ali Geelani was also denied passport. However, during 2015, government issued passport to Geelani for his travel to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to visit his ailing daughter. He could not travel and has been placed under house arrest for the last so many years.
JKLF Chief Mohammad Yasin Malik too has been denied to travel abroad since 2013 after there was a controversy that he shared a stage with Hafiz Saeed during his visit to Pakistan.
Malik’s wife, who is a Pakistani nationalist last month, claimed that Indian government “barred” her and daughter from meeting him.
However, Union Home Ministry, had claimed that Malik’s wife “has not shown any interest in visiting India nor has she applied for a visa since her two-year visa expired in 2015”.
Shabir Ahmed Shah has reportedly never applied for a passport. Dukhtaran-e-Millat chief Sayeda Aasiya Andrabi also does not have a passport.