Pakistan rejects PM Modi's remarks as misleading on J&K issue

Islamabad: Pakistan on Monday rejected Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on Jammu and Kashmir as 'misleading and one-sided' and accused India of carrying out oppressive actions in the region. 

“The remarks are misleading and one-sided. They conveniently omit the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, which remains unresolved for the last seven decades despite India’s solemn assurances to the United Nations, Pakistan, and the Kashmiri people,” the Pakistan Foreign Office said in a statement.

Narendra Modi, in an interview with American podcaster Lex Fridman on Sunday, said that “every attempt to foster peace with Pakistan was met with hostility and betrayal” and that he hoped that “wisdom would prevail on the leadership in Islamabad to improve bilateral ties.”

Pakistan rejected his assertions and alleged that India was involved in fomenting trouble on Pakistani soil and carrying out “state-sanctioned oppression” in Jammu and Kashmir. It also accused India of “orchestrating targeted assassinations, subversion and terrorism in foreign territories.”

The Foreign Office said Pakistan has always advocated constructive engagement and result-oriented dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues, including the core dispute of Jammu and Kashmir, and added that peace and stability in South Asia have remained hostage to “India’s rigid approach and hegemonic ambitions”. It said the alleged “anti-Pakistan narrative” emanating from India vitiates the bilateral environment and impedes the prospects for peace and cooperation, adding that “it must stop”.

India has repeatedly told Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir “was, is and shall forever” remain an integral part of the country.

The India-Pakistan bilateral ties nosedived and the trade between the two countries stopped after India abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution, revoking the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcating into two Union Territories on August 5, 2019.

In an interaction with Fridman, the US-based popular podcaster and computer scientist, Modi recalled that he had specially invited his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif for his swearing-in ceremony in 2014 with the hope that the two countries could turn a new leaf. “Yet, every noble attempt at fostering peace was met with hostility and betrayal. We sincerely hope that wisdom prevails upon them and they choose the path of peace,” he said.

Modi said he believed that even the people of Pakistan long for peace because they also must be tired of living in strife, unrest and relentless terror where even innocent children are killed and countless lives are destroyed. Modi also called out Pakistan's long-standing role in fostering terrorism, emphasising that the world was no longer in doubt about where the roots of terror lie and added that time and again, Pakistan has emerged as the epicentre of terror, causing immense suffering not just to India but to the entire world.