By Shuriah Niazi
NEW DELHI (AA) - Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday hit out at Pakistan, for approaching international forums, against India’s move of scraping the special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
Earlier at the behest of Pakistan and China, the UN Security Council held close door consultations on the Muslim-majority region in India. Pakistan is now weighing options to knock at the doors of the International Court of Justice.
Even as world leaders are insisting both countries to settle issues across the table, Singh linked resumption of talks, to Pakistan first stopping “export of terror to India”.
Hi comments have come at a time, when tensions are running between the nuclear-armed rivals in South Asia.
Addressing an event organized by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) in the remote Himalayan region of Ladakh, Singh said, while he respects Pakistan’s existence, but it has "no locus standi" on Jammu and Kashmir.
He said Islamabad should, instead focus on human rights situation in its part of Kashmir.
“India wants to have good neighborly relationship with Pakistan, but it should first stop exporting terror to India. We cannot talk to Pakistan when it continues trying to destabilize India,” he said.
Singh is on his first visit to Ladakh, after the government separated the region from the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
While the Buddhist majority district of Leh in the region has supported New Delhi’s move to bifurcate the state, the nearby Muslim majority Kargil district is locked up and up against the move.
Singh also claimed that Pakistan’s efforts to seek support from other countries against India have failed.
“No one is backing Islamabad. The U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper told me during telephonic conversation that abrogation of Article 370 [constitution provision that gave special status] is an internal matter of India. Kashmir has always been with us and will remain so,” he claimed.
Esper, who took office last month, had his first conversation with Singh over telephone on Aug. 20.
The two leaders are likely to meet in Washington later this year as part of the India-U.S. dialogue. They will be joined by External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for the strategic talks.
- Disputed region
From 1954 until Aug. 5, 2019, Jammu and Kashmir had special provisions under which it enacted its own laws. The provisions also protected the region's citizenship law, which barred outsiders from settling in and owning land in the territory.
India and Pakistan both hold Kashmir in parts and claim it in full. China also controls part of the contested region, but it is India and Pakistan who have fought two wars over Kashmir.
Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
According to several human rights groups, thousands of people have been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.