ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) on Friday said that there had been an “alarming surge in provocative statements from Indian leaders asserting unwarranted claims over Azad Jammu and Kashmir”, adding that Pakistan rejected such claims.
The remarks by the FO spokesperson did not mention any specific statement by an Indian leader.
However, Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said that the “people of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir will demand to be with India” due to the development taking place in the neighbouring country, according to NDTV.
Earlier this month, India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar stated that India “would never accept that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is not part of India”, The Economic Times reported.
The development also comes after Iran and Pakistan, in a joint statement, highlighted the need to resolve the long-standing issue through “dialogue and peaceful means based on the will of the people of that region and in accordance with international law”. In response, India said it had taken up the matter with Iranian authorities, according to The Print.
It should be mentioned that India is currently in the process of conducting a mammoth election, in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is widely expected to win a third term.
Addressing a weekly press briefing in Islamabad today, FO spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said, “We are witnessing an alarming surge in provocative statements from Indian leaders asserting unwarranted claims on AJK. Pakistan rejects these claims.
“Fuelled by hyper-nationalism, this inflammatory rhetoric poses a grave threat to regional peace and susceptibility,” she added, urging “Indian politicians to cease their reckless practice of dragging Pakistan into India’s populist public discourse for electoral motives”.
“Historical and legal facts as well as ground realities refute India’s baseless claims over AJK. Despite India’s rhetoric and assertions, Jammu and Kashmir remains an internationally recognised disputed territory,” the spokesperson asserted.
Zahra noted that the UN Security Council resolutions on the region “clearly outline that the final status of Jammu and Kashmir shall be determined by the will of the people through a free and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices”.
“India would be wise to help implement these resolutions instead of harbouring delusions of grandeur,” the FO spokesperson stressed.
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