World Bulletin / News Desk


US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton this week appointed a Kashmiri-origin woman as a special representative to Muslim communities as part of the Obama Administration's effort to reach out to the Muslims around the world.
But her communications staff failed to make the nomination public.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly only released the information when journalists asked him during the daily media briefing about reports in India that a special representative for Muslim communities had been named.

"Yes," he said. "She's actually a friend of mine. I worked with her very closely in the European Bureau, Farah Pandith. She was a special adviser for outreach to Muslim communities in Europe. The secretary has appointed her to more of a global role."

Asked why it had not been made public, he said: "There was an announcement. I know it was sent out to the State Department community. But we will put it out more broadly."

When a journalist suggested the nomination might interest the broader Muslim community than just the State Department, he replied: "Fair point."

"Kashmiri origin"

According to Indian reports, the Pandiths left for the US in 1970, when Farah was only four. Her father, Mohammad Anwar Pandith, is a businessman originally from Sopore, the hometown of Syed Ali Shah Geelani, leader of Hurriyat Conference Alliance and has been a center of pro-freedom movements.

Her mother Mehbooba, from Srinagar, is a chest specialist. With their younger son, they live in Boston.

Farah has kept coming back to Kashmir over the years, her uncle said. She did her postgraduation thesis on the Kashmir insurgency.

"The last time she was here was some three years back. She was not allowed to come to this (troubled) region after that because she was working in the White House," said her maternal uncle Mian Mushtaq Ahmad, a former chief engineer of the Jammu and Kashmir government.

Kashmiris see India as an "occupier" and accuse the ruling of systematic violations, killing dozens of civilians in Himalayan region.

Tens of thousands of Muslims have been killed since pro-independent moves grew against Indian rule in 1989.

In 1948, the United Nations adopted a resolution calling for a referendum for Kashmir to determine whether the Himalayan region should be part of India and Pakistan. But India has rejected to hold referendum in Kashmiri territory.

Indian security forces have been accused in the past of human rights violations, including rape and extrajudicial killings.

Authorities deny any systematic violations and say all reports are investigated and the guilty punished.