Pakistan slams India’s ‘misplaced rhetoric of aggression, belligerence’

• FO says statement distorts facts about AJK.
• It says India is trying to threaten security.
• FO demands int’l community to take note of India’s behaviour.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday strongly condemned remarks by Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), saying that it was India’s “misplaced rhetoric of aggression and belligerence”.

“The Government of Pakistan condemns in the strongest possible terms the highly provocative and irresponsible comments by the Indian Defence Minister in the context of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” the Foreign Office’s spokesperson said in a statement.

His statement, spokesperson Tahir Andrabi said, not only distorts facts regarding the UN and internationally recognised Jammu and Kashmir dispute that remains on the agenda of the UN Security Council but also shows the Indian government’s deliberate policy to threaten regional and international peace and security.

Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had claimed on Sunday that talks with Pakistan would be held only on “Pakistan-administered Kashmir”, The News reported. He also said the Indian government had given the armed forces a free hand to respond decisively to threats and expressed confidence that no adversary would dare cast a hostile eye on India.

The Foreign Office said such insinuations are an attempt to divert attention from India’s continued occupation of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), its sponsorship of terrorism across the region, as well as its domestic instability.

“While resorting to its misplaced rhetoric of aggression and belligerence, India must not underestimate the people and Government of Pakistan’s unwavering resolve and determination to thwart any Indian adventurism as demonstrated by the entire Pakistani nation and its valiant armed forces during Operation Bunyan-ul-Marsoos last year.”

Pakistan, he said, urges the international community, in particular the United Nations, to take note of India’s continued rogue behaviour and to hold it accountable for its failure to uphold the relevant UN Security Council resolutions that guarantee the right to self-determination to the Kashmiris.