File photo
Foreign Office says Delhi’s terming disputed region an ‘internal affair’ are contrary to legal facts, in violation of UNSC resolutions
Pakistan on Sunday “strongly” rejected statements by the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs in which he had slammed a joint statement issued by Beijing and Islamabad over its support for the right to self-determination of residents of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The [Indian] MEA’s contentions about Jammu and Kashmir being the so-called ‘integral and inalienable part’ of India and an ‘internal affair’ are a laughable fiction, totally contrary to historical and legal facts and in violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions,” read a statement issued by the Foreign Office. “India’s self-serving claims regarding Jammu and Kashmir, including the parts which are under illegal Indian occupation, have no basis whatsoever,” it added.
The statement also categorically rejected “India’s malicious propaganda against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor,” which it branded a “desperate” attempt to mislead the global community. “India has no locus standi on the issue—historical, legal or moral. The regurgitation of false claims by India can neither change facts nor divert attention from India’s state-terrorism in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and its egregious violations of human rights of the Kashmiri people,” it added.
The Foreign Office release urged India to cease such “false and misleading assertions,” and faithfully implement its international obligations. “India must immediately vacate its illegal and forcible occupation of IIOJK and let the Kashmiris exercise their inalienable right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations as enshrined in the relevant UNSC Resolutions,” it added.
Last week, Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Anurag Srivastava had stated that Delhi had “categorically rejected the reference to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir in the joint press release of the Second Round of China-Pakistan Foreign Ministers’ Strategic Dialogue.” He claimed the disputed region was an integral and inalienable part of India and “we expect the parties concerned to not interfere in matters that are internal affairs of India.”
He has also slammed CPEC and reiterated India’s opposition to any projects that “change the status quo” of Pakistan-administered Kashmir.