EAM’s PoK remark irks Pakistan

New Delhi: External affairs minister S. Jaishankar’s comment that India will one day have “physical jurisdiction” over Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) has triggered a war of words with a stung Pakistan, which asked the “international community to take serious cognisance of India’s aggressive posturing about taking ‘physical jurisdiction’ of ... (PoK)”.

Alleging that such “irresponsible and belligerent statements have the potential to further escalate tensions and seriously jeopardise peace and security in the region”, Islamabad said it “stands for peace, but would be ready to respond effectively to any act of aggression”. The statement was issued by the Pakistan Foreign Office late on Tuesday night.   

The latest verbal clash comes ahead of the expected Indo-Pak face-off at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on September 27 when the Prime Ministers of the two countries are expected to speak within hours of each other.

At the UNGA, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to raise the issue of terrorism strongly in the light of his earlier suggestion that there should be a global conference to discuss the menace. At the same time, speculation is rife that India may also ignore Pakistan largely to avoid giving it any publicity or importance. Following the decision of India to bifurcate Jammu & Kashmir into two union territories and revoke Article 370 early last month, Islamabad has been mounting a shrill campaign against New Delhi.

As already reported, at his press conference on Tuesday to highlight the foreign policy achievements on completion of the first 100 days of the Modi government’s second tenure in office, Mr Jaishankar had said, in response to a question, “PoK is part of India. We expect that one day we will have physical jurisdiction over it”.

This comes on the heels of defence minister Rajnath Singh’s recent statement that any bilateral discussion with Pakistan would focus on the illegal occupation of PoK by Pakistan. The comments by the two ministers within days are being seen as a hardening of stand by India vis-a-vis Pakistan. But that was not all. Mr Jaishankar had also lambasted Pakistan for its extremely poor treatment of its minorities, saying that “if there is an objective human rights audit in this part of the world, I can pretty confidently assert who will come last”.