New Delhi: India said, on Tuesday, that Pakistan should “avoid duplicitous behaviour” and its raking up the Kashmir issue was not conducive to holding a composite dialogue between them.
External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said that Pakistan “should avoid duplicitous behaviour. They should not make reference to the UN (on Jammu and Kashmir) when both sides are discussing the Kashmir issue in their composite dialogue. Pakistan should create conditions for the holding of composite dialogue.”
He was reacting after Pakistan said on Monday that the Kashmir dispute remained a “core issue” with India and added that it was “unfortunate” that the Indian leadership continued to refer to Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of the country.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office, in a statement, expressed “disappointment” at Khurshid’s remarks on the status of J&K.
The statement said the “Kashmir dispute is the core issue that remains unresolved between the two countries”.
“It is unfortunate that Indian leadership continues to refer to the state of Jammu and Kashmir as an integral part of India, when the reality is clearly otherwise,” it said.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had sought US intervention to settle the Kashmir issue over the weekend. Khurshid had then made it clear that no one should question Kashmir’s status as an integral part of India.
“It is a waste of time for anybody, no matter how eminent, to be even trying to question it,” he said. (IANS)