A day after Pakistan Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari raked up the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), India came down heavily on Islamabad for making what it called “unwarranted remarks”. India added, “The only contribution that Pakistan can make is to stop state sponsored terrorism.”
The Pakistan Foreign Minister raised the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, the abrogation of Article 370 and the recent order by the Delimitation Commission during his remarks at the UNSC debate on Thursday. Sources told The Daily Guardian that Bilawal also spoke about the Kashmir issue during his bilateral talks with the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Bhutto also raised Kashmir issue in his meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, where he emphasised that Islamabad desired peace with all its neighbours, including India, which will continue to remain elusive unless the Jammu and Kashmir issue was resolved. “India is reaching out to the Biden administration through diplomatic channels to expose
Pakistan’s agenda,” sources said. “In face, India views Bhutto’s remarks as part of larger strategy of Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to try to internationalise the Kashmir issue so as to divert focus from terror organisations operating from Pakistan’s soil,” diplomats told The Daily Guardian. “New Delhi has intensified its efforts to expose this agenda, and as part of this campaign diplomats have reached out to Blinken as well,” they added.
Sources said that “India was closely watching Bilawal’s meetings and statements, following which a comprehensive reply was given by our diplomats at the UNSC.” Slamming Pakistan, Counsellor in India’s Permanent Mission to the UN, Rajesh Parihar said, “Pakistan Representative made unwarranted remarks, which symbolises nothing but a Pavlovian response aimed to misuse any forum, and every topic, to propagate false and malicious propaganda against my country.”
India exercised the Right of Reply at the Security Council open debate on Maintenance of International Peace & Security—Conflict and Food Security organised by the US, the Council President. “The Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were, are and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India. This includes the areas that are under the illegal occupation of Pakistan. No amount of rhetoric and propaganda from any country can deny this fact,” Parihar asserted.
The only contribution that Pakistan can make is to stop state sponsored terrorism. As regards to his other remarks, we will treat it with the contempt it deserves, Parihar added.
The Pakistan Foreign Minister, who is on his maiden visit to the US, also raked up the Kashmir issue while responding to questions during a press conference in New York on Thursday.
“As far as the question of our relationship with India is concerned, it is particularly complicated…by their recent actions in Kashmir—firstly the August 5, 2019 decision to abrogate Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir as well as the recent decision by the delimitation commission on Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
He said that these actions “have complicated this matter” and are an “assault” on the United Nations, the UN Security Council resolutions and the Geneva Convention. Bilawal said, “such actions make it very difficult for us to hold a dialogue” with India.
Meanwhile, India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 was its internal matter. India has repeatedly told Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir “was, is and shall forever” remain an integral part of the country. It also advised Pakistan to accept the reality and stop all anti-India propaganda.