Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and Pakistan has “illegally occupied a part of our territory”, said India’s permanent representative to United Nations, Ajit Kumar, on Thursday. “The neutrality of the phrase ‘Indian Administered Kashmir’ is, therefore, artificial,” Kumar said at the 34th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“The state of Jammu and Kashmir has an elected democratic government that represents all sections of the people, unlike the situation in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir,” Kumar said in a statement. He also asked why the UN High Commissioner had maintained a silence in a debate regarding Pakistan using “terrorism as an instrument of state policy”. “The central problem in Jammu and Kashmir is cross-border terrorism,” the statement said.
On February 27, while addressing the UNHRC, Pakistan’s Law Minister had described India as the “occupying power” that was allegedly brutalising the people of Kashmir. Responding to the allegations, Kumar on March 1 had said it was Pakistan who was carrying out cross-border terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir to destabilise the situation there.
“Pakistan has created terrorist outfits against India. This monster is now devouring its own creator,” Kumar had said in a statement.
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