India has called on Pakistan to vacate the illegally occupied territory in Jammu and Kashmir and to stop justifying state-sponsored terrorism.
Responding to Pakistan’s repeated attempts to raise the Kashmir issue in the Security Council, India’s Permanent Representative P. Harish said on Monday, “Such repeated references neither validate their illegal claims nor justify their state-sponsored cross-border terrorism.”
“Pakistan continues to illegally occupy the territory of Jammu and Kashmir, which it must vacate,” he asserted, adding, “That would be in keeping with Security Council Resolution 47, adopted on April 21, 1948, which requires Pakistan to withdraw its forces and infiltrators from Kashmir.”
Harish further said, “Jammu and Kashmir was, is, and will always be an integral part of India.” He advised Pakistan to refrain from using international forums to push its divisive agenda.
Earlier, during a debate on new challenges facing peacekeeping, Syed Tariq Fatemi, Pakistan’s junior foreign affairs minister, urged the Council to enforce its resolution on a plebiscite for Kashmir.
However, the same resolution clearly stipulated that Pakistan must first withdraw all non-resident tribesmen and Pakistani nationals who had entered Jammu and Kashmir for the purpose of fighting. It also required Pakistan to halt support for militants and prevent any further incursions.
A plebiscite could not be held at the time the resolution was passed because Pakistan refused to fulfill its precondition of withdrawal from Kashmir. India maintains that a plebiscite is now irrelevant, as the people of Kashmir have demonstrated their allegiance to India through participation in democratic elections and by electing their own leaders.
Fatemi also mentioned the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), which was established in 1949 to monitor the ceasefire along the Line of Control. However, India considers UNMOGIP an outdated institution, made irrelevant by the 1972 Shimla Agreement, which declared the Kashmir issue a bilateral matter between the two countries, leaving no room for third-party intervention. India has since expelled UNMOGIP from its government-provided offices in New Delhi.
-IANS
