NEW DELHI (AA): India on Saturday said China should “respect India’ssovereignty and territorial integrity” as recent developments in Jammu andKashmir were “entirely a matter internal” to Indians.
“The Chinese side is well aware of India’s position that Jammu, Kashmir &Ladakh are an integral part of India, and that the recent developments areentirely a matter internal to us,” said Raveesh Kumar, India’s ForeignMinistry spokesman, in a statement.
The statement came a day after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s said atthe UN General Assembly in New York that the Kashmir dispute between Indiaand Pakistan should be resolved as per UN Security Council resolutions andbilateral agreements.
“No actions that would unilaterally change the status quo should be taken,”Wang Yi added.
Kumar called on Beijing to respect India’s sovereignty and territorialintegrity. However, he did not mention the ongoing lockdown and worseninghumanitarian situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
“We expect that other countries will respect India’s sovereignty andterritorial integrity, and desist from efforts to change the status quothrough the illegal so-called China Pakistan Economic Corridor in Pakistanoccupied Kashmir,” he added.
Jammu and Kashmir has been under a near-complete lockdown since the Indiangovernment’s move on Aug. 5 to scrap the special status of Jammu andKashmir.
Since then, the Indian government has blocked communication access andimposed restrictions on movement to thwart any protests in the region.
Several rights groups including the Human Rights Watch and AmnestyInternational have repeatedly called on India to lift restrictions andrelease political detainees.
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India said that 93% of the restrictions have been eased in theconflict-ridden region, a claim that Anadolu Agency could not independentlyverify.
A disputed region
From 1954 until Aug. 5, 2019, Jammu and Kashmir had special provisionsunder which it enacted its own laws. The provisions also protected theregion’s citizenship law, which barred outsiders from settling in andowning land in the territory.
India and Pakistan both hold Kashmir in parts and claim it in full. Chinaalso controls part of the contested region, but it is India and Pakistanwho have fought two wars over Kashmir.
Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indianrule for independence or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
According to several human rights groups, thousands of people have beenkilled in the conflict in the region since 1989.
