India issued a strong rebuke to Pakistan after its caretaker Prime Minister, Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar, mentioned Jammu and Kashmir in his address to the UN General Assembly. Kakar had referred to Kashmir as the key to peace between India and Pakistan.
Petal Gahlot, India’s First Secretary at the United Nations for the Second Committee of UNGA, stated, “Pakistan has become a habitual offender when it comes to misusing this esteemed platform to propagate unfounded and malicious propaganda against India.”
She emphasized that member states of the United Nations and other multilateral organizations are well aware that Pakistan does so in an attempt to divert the international community’s attention from its own poor human rights record. Gahlot reiterated that the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir are an integral part of India, and matters concerning these regions are purely internal affairs. Pakistan, she asserted, has no standing to comment on India’s domestic matters.
Pakistan has consistently sought to internationalize the Jammu and Kashmir issue at global forums, including the UN, while India has repeatedly called out Pakistan for providing shelter to terrorists on its soil.
“Clearly, Pakistan is the exception in the neighborhood. The reality is that we cannot normalize terrorism, and we cannot let it serve as a basis for engaging in discussions with Pakistan,” External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar stated in June.
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated following the Pulwama terror attack on February 14, 2019, in which 40 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel lost their lives. India responded with airstrikes in Balakot, located in Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
Six months later, India revoked Article 370, which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, splitting it into two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.