Ilhan Omar On ‘Unofficial, Personal’ PoK Visit: US After India Condemns Move

The Democratic Congresswoman is on a four-day visit to Pakistan that began earlier on April 20.

US lawmaker Ilhan Omar meets ousted Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan (Image: Twitter @ShireenMazari1)

New Delhi: US lawmaker Ilhan Omar’s meeting with recently ousted Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan and her “unofficial, personal” visit to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir did not represent the United States government in any way, an official said.

“It’s an unofficial personal visit and it does not represent any policy change on behalf of the United States government,” Derek Chollet, counselor to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, told news agency ANI earlier on Thursday.

The Democratic Congresswoman is on a four-day visit to Pakistan that began earlier on April 20.

Omar, a Somali-American who belongs to President Joe Biden's Democratic Party, had earlier on Wednesday met Imran Khan as well as visited a part of PoK.

“Kashmir should get more attention from the United States,” Omar told reporters after visiting PoK.

“I don't believe that it (Kashmir) is being talked about to the extent it needs to in Congress but also with the administration,” she added.

The Islamabad visit by Omar, who represents Minnesota in the US House of Representatives, is the first by an American legislator since the new Pakistan government took office.

Her meeting with Imran Khan at his residence at Bani Gala has been criticized since the ousted prime minister had accused Washington of conspiracy to dislodge his government.

“Congresswoman's visit was a personal visit. It was not something that the State Department helped to organise so I don't have much to comment on it. Because it was a visit made in her personal capacity,” Chollet said when asked what the US made of the meeting in particular.

India had on Thursday condemned Omar’s visit to Pak-occupied Kashmir as violative of India's territorial integrity and sovereignty and that it reflected her "narrow-minded" politics.

“Let me just say that if such a politician wishes to practice her narrow-minded politics at home, that's her business,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) official spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told reporters at a media briefing in New Delhi.

“But violating our territorial integrity and sovereignty... makes this ours, and we think the visit is condemnable,” he added.

Omar is the first naturalised citizen of African birth to sit in the US Congress.

She has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and has previously questioned Biden administration officials over what she said was their "failure" to criticize the Indian government on the issue of human rights and its actions against its Muslim minorities in India.