NEW DELHI: A day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed “grave” concern over the prevailing situation in Indian-administered Kashmir, New Delhi reacted sharply on Saturday asking Ankara not to “interfere in the internal affairs” of the country.
“India rejects all references to Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral and inalienable part of India,” Raveesh Kumar, Ministry of External Affairs’ spokesperson said in a statement on Saturday.
“We call upon the Turkish leadership to not interfere in India’s internal affairs and develop proper understanding of the facts, including the grave threat posed by terrorism emanating from Pakistan to India and the region,” he added.
During a meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad on Friday, Erdogan had voiced support for Islamabad on the Kashmir issue.
“Our Kashmiri brothers and sisters have suffered from inconveniences for decades and these sufferings have become graver due to unilateral steps taken in recent times,” he said during his two-day official trip to Pakistan.
He’s part of a global brigade of supporters voicing concern over New Delhi’s decision from August 5 last year when it annulled Article 370 of the Indian constitution which guaranteed special autonomy to the disputed territory of Kashmir which is governed in parts but claimed by both India and Pakistan in full.
For the past six months, all democratic political activities have been suspended in the valley with mainstream political leaders and activists under detention.
While Internet services have been partially restored, heavy military presence continues to hamper normal life in the valley.
“Today, the issue of Kashmir is as close to us as it is to you (Pakistanis). Such a solution on the basis of justice and fairness will serve the interests of all parties concerned. Turkey will continue to stand by justice, peace and dialogue in the resolution of the Kashmir issue,” the Turkish leader added.
It follows his comments from September last year wherein he had raised the Kashmir issue at the United Nations General Assembly, too.
On Wednesday, four influential US senators, Chris Van Hollen, Todd Young, Richard J Durbin and Lindsey O Graham, who described themselves as “longtime friends of India”, expressed concerns over the human rights situation and religious freedom in Kashmir with hundreds of Kashmiris in “preventive detention”.
In a letter to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the senators from both the Democratic and the ruling Republican Party, talked about “the longest-ever Internet shutdown by a democracy, disrupting access to medical care, business and education for seven million people.”
They added that “more than six months after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government unilaterally revoked the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, the government continues to block most Internet in the region. Hundreds of Kashmiris remain in ‘preventive detention’, including key political figures.”
New Delhi-based foreign policy analyst, Dr. Zakir Hussain, said that the “bipartisan concern on Kashmir by the US senators shows the anxiety among the American lawmakers about the prevailing situation in the valley.”
“It may become a bargaining chip. Trump is a transaction man and he has two priorities: first to achieve economic success and for this he is trying to squeeze China and India and second he has elections to win in November,” Hussain told Arab News, adding that the timing of the letter indicates that Kashmir and the issue of religious freedom in India might figure in the bilateral engagement between Modi and US President Donald Trump.
“Modi may buy Trump’s silence on Kashmir for the time being but considering Washington’s geopolitical interests in South Asia, it would be difficult for the western world to ignore what is happening in the valley,” he said.
Trump is scheduled to begin his first official trip to India on February 24.