India’s Permanent Representative P Harish has told Islamabad that ranting about Kashmir in international forums will not justify cross-border terrorism or change the reality of the region being an integral part of India.
He was reacting to Pakistan’s former Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua bringing up Kashmir during an informal meeting of the General Assembly to commemorate the International Day to Combat Islamophobia.
“As is their habit, former Foreign Secretary of Pakistan today has made an unjustified reference to the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir”, Harish said. “Frequent references will neither validate their claim nor justify their practice of cross-border terrorism”.
“The fanatical mindset of this nation is well known, as also its record of bigotry”, he said of Pakistan.
“Such efforts will not change the reality that Jammu and Kashmir was, is and will always be an integral part of India”, he declared.
Pakistan has been a voice in the wilderness at the UN when it comes to Kashmir. While it raises Kashmir at almost any chance its representatives get a chance to speak, no other country has taken up the cause.
Janjua, who was Pakistan’s foreign secretary from 2017 to 2019, spoke as one of the invitees to the meeting and not as a representative of Islamabad. She tried to link Kashmir to Gaza – a tactic of Pakistan – and asserted, “Islamophobia is a significant driver of the horrific killing killings of Muslims in occupied territories, such as in Indian occupied Kashmir, and in Palestine.”