Mecca high priest to meet Mirwaiz Farooq

All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) chairman and Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umer Farooq is slated to meet the visiting Sheikh Saud Ash Shuraim, high priest of Masjid al-Haram in Mecca in Saudi Arabia, this Saturday.

Dr Shuraim will be arriving in the Capital on Thursday for a five-day visit that includes addressing the two day Ahle Hadees Convention at Ram Lila ground on March 2-3.

One of the six Imam of the grand mosque, Dr Shuraim is expected to lead two prayers at the national convention and is expected to offer prayers at Jama Masjid and meet Imam Ahmed Bukhari on Friday. After paying a visit to Jamait-e-Ulema Hind’s office in Okhla, he will be escorted by Maulana Arshad Madani to Dar-ul-Uloom at Deoband on March 4 and is flying back to Saudi Arabia the next day.

Official sources said Awami Action Committee Chairman Farooq will be arriving in Delhi on March 3 after distributing the invites from Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar to APHC at the executive meeting slated for Feb 29, 2012. According to sources, Khar sent a clutch of invitations to Hurriyat leaders through Pakistan High Commissioner to India Shahid Malik this week. Already invitations to visit Pakistan have been given to Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and Shabbir Shah besides Farooq, who left for Srinagar with remaining invitation letters for fellow APHC leaders.

It is learnt that Geelani and Shah may not be going to Pakistan as the former has been addressed as purely Tehreek-e-Hurriyat leader and not Chairman of APHC-G and Shah is not interested in travelling on an Indian passport.