India Asks Pakistan To 'Vacate' Illegally Occupied Kashmir At UN, Reaffirms J&K As Integral Part

India delivered a strong rebuttal to Pakistan at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Open Debate on Monday (24 March), asserting that Jammu and Kashmir "was, is, and will always be an integral part of India."

PTI reported that India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish, condemned Pakistan’s continued attempts to internationalise the Kashmir issue, calling its claims "illegal" and urging Islamabad to "vacate" its occupation of the region.

Harish’s remarks came in response to Pakistan once again raising the issue of Jammu and Kashmir at the UNSC debate on Advancing Adaptability in UN Peace Operations.

India’s envoy dismissed the statements as "unwarranted remarks" and accused Pakistan of engaging in state-sponsored cross-border terrorism.

"Such repeated references neither validate their illegal claims nor justify their state-sponsored cross-border terrorism," Harish stated, adding that "we would advise Pakistan not to try to divert the attention of this forum to drive their parochial and divisive agenda."

India chose not to invoke its Right of Reply in detail, indicating its unwillingness to be drawn into what it sees as Pakistan’s "divisive agenda."

The latest diplomatic confrontation comes against the backdrop of India’s abrogation of Article 370 on 5 August 2019, which revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and reorganised it into two Union Territories.

Relations between the two nations have deteriorated since then, with India maintaining that any dialogue with Pakistan must occur in an environment free of terror, hostility, and violence.

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