“We believe the OIC appointing a special envoy on Kashmir is a significant development,” Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of Kashmir’s All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), said.

Abdullah bin Abdul Rahman, a Saudi official, was named the pan-Muslim organization’s envoy to the disputed Himalayan region during a meeting of the OIC Contact Group at the UN headquarters on Monday.

Farooq said the move would help solve the conflict in line with aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

"The OIC should press India to resolve the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiri people," he said.

“We want Muslim countries to use their good offices to persuade India to work on Kashmir.”

Kashmir is divided into two parts and ruled by India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars since the 1947 independence over the region.

Pakistan and the UN back the right of the Kashmir people for self-determination, an option opposed by New Delhi.

• OIC member

Farooq said he is also seeking the seat of a permanent member for Kashmir at the 57-member organization.

He told Kashmir Media Service that OIC Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu was “receptive to his demand”.

But Indian diplomatic source said that New Delhi would deny the OIC envoy access to the disputed region.

The envoy may not even be allowed to visit Jammu and Kashmir if any such request is made, the sources told the Hindustan Times.

The appointment of the OIC envoy has sparked calls for the United Nations to appoint an envoy to the disputed region.

"We believe that an appointment of a special envoy on Kashmir by the United Nations will go a long way to hasten the process of peace and prosperity in the region of South Asia," said Ghulam Nabi Fai, head of the Washington-based Kashmir American Council.