Visa denial turns int'l seminar into regional event in Kargil

Kargil, Jun 4 (UNI) A proposed international seminar beginning here today turned into a regional event after authorities refused visa to some foreign delegates, sources said.

The four-day seminar, organised by the International Center for Religion and Diplomacy (ICRD), a US-based non-governmental organisation (NGO), was scheduled to be attended by about a dozen delegates from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), Gilgit and Askardu.

However, the sources said they (delegates) were denied visa at the eleventh hour due to security reasons.

The NGO had earlier organised several similar seminars in different parts of the world. The aims and objects of this seminar here was to promote communal harmony in Jammu and Kashmir.

The ICRD serves as a bridge between religion and politics in preventing and resolving conflicts in various parts of the world By linking religious reconciliation with official and unofficial diplomacy, it claims to have created a new synergy for peace making in such places as Jammu and Kashmir, Sudan, Pakistan, and Iran.

The seminar was later converted into a regional event with about 50 people from Jammu, Srinagar Leh and Kargil taking part in it.

The ICRD's senior vice president for dispute resolution training, The Reverend Canon Brian Cox, inaugurated the seminar here.

Canon Brian Cox is an ordained Episcopal priest and a trained professional mediator. In addition to directing the ICRD's projects in Jammu and Kashmir and the Middle East, he serves as Rector of Christ the King Episcopal Church in Santa Barbara, California.

UNI