24-05-2025
Lone NC MP in All-Party Delegations to Not Join His Group, Cites Urs at Native Village
National Conference MP Mian Altaf (centre) visits an area affected by shelling from Pakistan, near the India-Pakistan border, in Jammu & Kashmir on Sunday, May 11, 2025. Photo: PTI
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New Delhi: National Conference (NC) MP Mian Altaf, who is the sole representative of his party in the seven all-party delegations travelling to foreign countries, didn't join his group and said that he had informed the government about his unavailability in advance.
Altaf was part of the delegation led by DMK MP Kanimozhi, which is in Moscow for the first leg of its tour. He was among the handful of leaders from Jammu and Kashmir – the region most affected by the recent conflict with Pakistan following the Pahalgam terror attack – who are part of the all-party delegations, the other politicians from the Union Territory being former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad and Ghulam Ali Khatana, a BJP Rajya Sabha MP, reported Indian Express.
Altaf has said that he will be unable to join the delegation because of his commitment towards annual Urs at his native village.
'There is nothing political about my decision not to be a part of the delegation. The fact is that I informed them (the government) in advance that I can't go. I am the host at the Urs. How do you expect the host to be missing when the guests arrive?' said Altaf.
Altaf, who is the Lok Sabha MP from the Anantnag-Rajouri parliamentary constituency, is a prominent spiritual leader of the Gujjar community of Jammu and Kashmir, and the annual Urs is held at his native village of Wangath to commemorate his great grandfather, who was also a spiritual leader of the Gujjars.
