INDIA HITS OUT AT PAK, TURKEY, MALAYSIA OVER J&K COMMENTS
NEW DELHI: India on Friday strongly criticised Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s remarks calling for a jihad against the country and for people to march across the Line of Control (LOC) at his behest, saying the comments did not behove the office held by him.
Recent comments by the leadership of Turkey and Malaysia, especially Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, were also criticised by external affairs ministry spokesperson, Raveesh Kumar, who told a weekly news briefing that the remarks were factually incorrect and biased.
Delivering a speech at Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on September 13, Khan had said people should be prepared to march towards the LOC on his call.
“Don’t go towards the LOC till I tell you to. I will tell you when to go and you shouldn’t go now,” he told a rally.
The remarks followed an escalation in tensions between India and Pakistan after New Delhi in August moved to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and decided to bifurcate the state into two Union Territories, J&K and Ladakh.
“We condemn such irresponsible and provocative rhetoric in the strongest words. He doesn’t know how international relations are conducted. But the more serious thing is that he made an open call that you march on, and for jihad against India,” said Kumar, speaking in Hindi.
and violate another country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and enter it, this statement does not behove the office he occupies,” he added.
India has repeatedly criticised the Pakistani leadership in the weeks since the August 5 decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, accusing Khan and other leaders of war mongering and calling for jihad in Kashmir. “This is not the first time such a statement has come from Pakistan. The prime minister occupies a high constitutional office and he has made similar statements earlier too. You have heard his statement at the UN General Assembly and he has used quite provocative and irresponsible language,” Kumar said.