ISLAMABAD: The foreign office on Thursday rejected Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s remarks that Pakistan was “occupying” a part of Kashmir after “invading” it in 1948, saying the region was an “internationally recognized disputed territory.”
The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir has remained a flashpoint between Pakistan and India since their independence from British rule in 1947. Both countries administer parts of the region but claim it in full, having fought three wars over the territory. The part governed by Pakistan is called Azad Kashmir while the Indian part is called Jammu and Kashmir.
Addressing an event in New Delhi this week, Jaishankar called the “occupation” of some parts of Kashmir by Pakistan “the longest standing illegal occupation” of territory by another country after the Second World War. He said Indian had taken the “invasion” to the UN, which had declared it a “dispute,” putting the “attacker and the victim ... on par.”
During a weekly press briefing on Thursday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Ambassador Shafqat Ali Khan said Pakistan was “alarmed” by the increasing frequency of such statements about Kashmir by Indian leaders.
“It was India that took the Jammu and Kashmir issue to the United Nations in 1948,” he told journalists. “Today, it has no right to blame the Security Council and its erstwhile members for the resolutions that were subsequently adopted.
“Repetition of baseless claims cannot deny the fact that Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory whose final status is to be determined by its people through a UN-supervised plebiscite, as stipulated in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” Khan added.
The spokesperson said Pakistan believed in peaceful co-existence and lasting peace in South Asia would require the resolution of the Kashmir dispute in line with UN resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
He accused India of blocking peace efforts through its “rigid approach and hegemonic ambitions.”
“The anti-Pakistan narrative emanating from India vitiates the bilateral environment and impedes the prospects for peace and cooperation,” the FO spokesman added. “It must stop.”
AFGHANISTAN
During the briefing, Khan also urged the Kabul government to take “visible and verifiable” action against the Pakistani Taliban, Baloch separatist militants and Daesh insurgents that Islamabad says are harboring in neighboring Afghanistan and launching cross-border attacks from there.
His remarks come after a surge in militant attacks in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and southwestern Balochistan provinces in recent months.
Last week, an unprecedented train hijacking by the Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) in Pakistan’s southwest killed 31 people, including troops. This was followed by a suicide attack in Nushki that killed five on Sunday. Pakistan said the attacks were carried out by militants who were in touch with “handlers” in Afghanistan.
The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other militant groups have also intensified their attacks in KP province, frequently targeting security force convoys and check posts, as well as carrying out targeted killings and kidnappings of security and government officials.
“Indeed, the terrorist threat against Pakistan from terrorist entities including TTP, BLA, and Daesh is our foremost concern,” Khan said in reply to a question during his weekly press briefing.
“We continue to impress upon interim [Afghan] authorities to take visible and verifiable action against them.”
Pakistani government and military officials have variously accused neighboring India and Afghanistan of fueling militancy in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, claims both New Delhi and Kabul deny.
