India on Friday pushed back against Norwegian foreign minister Espen Barth Eide’s remarks on Kashmir during a visit to Islamabad, saying the world community should focus on Pakistan’s use of illegally occupied portions of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir to back cross-border terrorism.
At a joint media briefing with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad on Thursday, Eide said his visit — the first by a Norwegian foreign minister in a decade — was an opportunity to discuss regional issues ranging from Jammu and Kashmir to Afghanistan. Dar said he briefed Eide on the “long-standing unresolved” dispute over Kashmir and the new dimension added to the “volatile security situation” by India’s decision to suspend the Indus Waters Treaty.
“Let me say that the whole of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are an integral and inalienable part of India,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a regular media briefing when he was asked about the Norwegian foreign minister’s comments.
“The issue that should concern the international community are the atrocities currently being perpetrated in the illegal Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and the use of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for cross-border terrorism,” he said.
India has repeatedly criticised Pakistan’s handling of widespread protests over the cost of living and elections to the local assembly in PoK in recent weeks. Dozens of people have died in a crackdown by security forces on the protests led by the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC).
Jaiswal responded to another question on Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s remarks criticising India’s decision to keep the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance by saying that there had been no change in New Delhi’s position on the matter.
“You are aware of our position on the Indus Waters Treaty and there has been no change in that,” he said, referring to India’s decision to suspend the pact following the Pahalgam terror attack in April last year.
Addressing an event in Islamabad on Thursday, Sharif said India had “proved itself an enemy of peace” by unilaterally suspending the Indus Waters Treaty. “I declare in clear terms that every drop of Pakistan’s water is our red line. If India does not come to its senses, it will be responded to directly.”
