New Delhi: After Pakistan raked up Kashmir issues atthe meetings of foreign ministers Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures (CICA) and South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), India on Thursday slammed Islamabad and said its “typical of Pakistan” to use multilateral platforms “to raise bilateral and contentious issues”.
During the virtual weekly news briefing here, on Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesman, Anurag Stivastava, said, “It is very typical of Pakistan to use such fora to raise bilateral and contentious issues which is inconsistent with the principles and charter of such organizations and their meetings.”
“What else can be expected of a country that indulges in cross-border terrorism as a part of its state policy,” he said.
After Islamabad converted Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's Gilgit-Baltistan region as its fifth province, India said that they have no legal basis as it is totally void ab initio (from the very beginning).
Srivastava in response to a question said, “Any action by Pakistan to alter the status of the militarily occupied so-called Gilgit-Baltistan has no legal basis whatsoever and is totally void ab initio.”
“Our position has always been clear and consistent. The entire territories of the UTs of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh have been and are an integral part of India and would remain so,” the spokesman added.
Pakistan has no locus standi to comment on India’s internal matters, he said.
