FO rubbishes Indian MEA’s claim of Kashmir as ‘integral part’

ISLAMABAD, Feb 10 : Pakistan on Thursday strongly rejected India’s claim on Kashmir, saying that the disputed Valley was neither in the past nor in the future would become India’s integral part.“New Delhi’s baseless claims over Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) can neither change the facts of history nor the legal status of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute,” the Foreign Office said.

“The IIOJK never was, and never will be India’s integral part,” it said in a statement issued here in response to the “preposterous comments” by the Spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs on the Pakistan-China Joint Statement of February 6, 2022.

The FO said the irrefutable fact remains that India was an occupation force in IIOJK in clear violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.

India’s illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019, seeking to change the internationally recognized disputed status of IIOJK and to alter its demographic structure, have been rejected by the Kashmiris, by Pakistan, and by the international community, it said.

The FO said Pakistan would continue to extend all possible support to the Kashmiris in their just struggle against India’s illegal occupation.

“Rather than resorting to false and misleading assertions without success, India must vacate its illegal occupation of the disputed territory, immediately reverse its illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, and let 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 said.

The FO also strongly rejected India’s persistent propaganda against China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

It said that Pakistan had shared irrefutable evidence of India’s sinister campaign to sabotage CPEC through its dossiers released in 2020 and 2021.

“There is strong evidence of Indian involvement in recent sinister attempts to stir up unrest in Balochistan by supporting anti-state elements,” it said.

It mentioned that Naval Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav was a living and irrefutable proof of how India had been seeking to sponsor and patronize subversive activities in Pakistan and the region.