The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has come under sharp criticism from Indian Muslim voices, Kashmiri activists and political leaders for issuing what they called a “biased and misleading” statement on Jammu and Kashmir.
On 27 October, marking what it described as 78 years of India’s “illegal occupation” of Jammu and Kashmir, the OIC General Secretariat reiterated its support for the “right to self-determination” of the Kashmiri people.
The statement urged India to respect human rights in the region and called for a final settlement of the issue under relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
However, the remarks have sparked widespread backlash from Indian commentators who accused the OIC of hypocrisy and political bias.
Indian Kashmiri advocate Javed Ahmad Beigh, who represents India at the United Nations, strongly criticised the OIC for issuing what he called a “biased and partisan” statement echoing Pakistan’s false narrative on Jammu and Kashmir.
In a Letter of Protest posted on X, Beigh said the OIC was “acting as a lackey and proxy of Pakistan,” and reminded the organisation that the entire princely state of Jammu and Kashmir legally acceded to India on 27 October 1947 through the Instrument of Accession signed by Maharaja Hari Singh.
He asserted that Pakistan, not India, acted illegally by invading parts of the region that remain under its occupation as PoJK and Gilgit-Baltistan. Rejecting the OIC’s references to “self-determination” and “UN resolutions,” Beigh stressed these have no legal validity after the 1972 Shimla Agreement, which made Kashmir a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan.
“The OIC must stop parroting Pakistan’s lies and instead condemn Pakistan’s decades of terrorism in Kashmir,” he wrote, adding that Indian Kashmiri Muslims are “proud citizens of India” and do not need the OIC to speak for them.
Prominent Kashmiri activist Sajid Yusuf Shah wrote on social media, “Bro, @OIC_OCI, you have lost every shred of credibility. You speak of ‘Kashmir’ but stay silent on Pakistan-occupied Jammu Kashmir, Baloch suffering and minority persecution across the Islamic world.”
“Stop exploiting Kashmir for your political business.”
Progressive Kashmiri voice Hinna Nazir also criticised the OIC for its silence on Pakistan’s role in fuelling terrorism in Kashmir, saying,
“If the @OIC_OCI can’t condemn Pakistan’s three decades of terrorism in Kashmir, it has no moral right to speak for Kashmiris.”
She added that “we Kashmiris stand proudly with India and reject Pakistan and its sponsored terrorism in the valley.”
Zahack Tanvir, founder of The Milli Chronicle, also denounced the OIC’s position, stating that Kashmir has always been an integral part of India’s 5,000-year-old civilisational history.
“It was Pakistan that attempted to usurp the region in 1947 through its forces and militias. Pakistan-occupied Kashmir remains under illegal occupation to this day.”
Tanvir thanked X for adding community notes that “set the historical record straight” and questioned the OIC’s silence on Pakistan’s recent killing of civilians in PoK.
BJP’s Jammu and Kashmir spokesperson Gaurav Gupta called the OIC’s statement “politically motivated” and “deeply uninformed”.
Gupta said,
“It’s unfortunate that the OIC continues to act as Pakistan’s mouthpiece instead of recognising the reality of a peaceful, democratic, and rapidly developing Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral part of India.”
He highlighted the OIC’s silence on Pakistan’s human rights abuses, including the killing of civilians in Muzaffarabad and Rawalakot, and quoted West Asia expert Michael Arizanti, who questioned why “the death of a Palestinian in Gaza is a global headline but that of a Kashmiri Muslim in Muzaffarabad is a footnote”.
Gupta added that under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, Jammu and Kashmir has witnessed major progress in infrastructure, tourism, education and healthcare.
“There is no dispute left in Jammu and Kashmir. The only issue is for Pakistan to vacate its illegally occupied territories of PoJK.”
Meanwhile, Khubaib Mir, a Kashmiri Muslim and activist, also rejected the OIC’s statement, saying it has “no locus standi” in the lives of Kashmiris.
“The OIC’s language on ‘self-determination’ erases the self of millions of Kashmiris who study, work, vote, and choose India every day. Kashmir’s future is shaped by our ballot and Constitution, not by communiqués drafted in distant conference rooms.”
He urged the OIC to stop its “selective activism” and acknowledge the progress in Jammu and Kashmir, where schools, businesses and democratic institutions are thriving, while people across the border in PoJK face repression and economic hardship.
Across political and civil society lines, the message from India was clear — the OIC’s continued parroting of Pakistan’s narrative undermines its credibility and fails to reflect the reality of a modern, developing and peaceful Jammu and Kashmir.
Formed in 1969, the OIC is a 57-nation bloc of Islamic countries including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, Egypt and the UAE. None of the 57 members are secular and only a handful are democratic or quasi-democratic. Critics argue that states without free and fair elections are in no position to lecture India, the world’s largest secular democracy, and its one-sided statements on Kashmir expose a persistent tilt towards Pakistan’s nefarious agenda at the expense of objective diplomacy.
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