‘Behave like normal neighbour’: India rebukes Pak for ‘irresponsible remarks’ on Kashmir

New Delhi, Aug 29: The government today issued a strong condemnation of the Pakistani leadership's recent "irresponsible" statements on the Jammu and Kashmir issue.

"We strongly condemn highly irresponsible statements by Pakistani leadership on matters internal to India," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said, in what is seen as a direct reference to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's comments.

"The provocative statements from Pakistan include call for jihad and inciting violence in India," Kumar said.

"Pakistan should behave like a normal neighbour, do normal talk, normal trade...This is not something that is happening from Pakistan. We would like them to behave like normal neighbours do, not push terrorists in the neighbouring country," he said.

Pakistan on Thursday said the resolution of the Kashmir issue as per the UN resolutions was its top foreign policy agenda.

Their Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal, during a weekly media briefing, said Pakistan has always supported bilateral talks with India, but the Indian leadership was not ready for it. "Resolution of Kashmir according to UN resolutions is cornerstone of our foreign policy," Faisal was quoted as saying by PTI.

On several occasions, Pakistan has attempted to internationalise the Kashmir issue after India abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcated it into two union territories. India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 was an internal matter and also advised Pakistan to accept the reality.

In fact, earlier this month, on the request of Pakistan's all-weather ally China, the UNSC held a closed-door meeting on the Kashmir issue, where majority of the member countries were of the view that the issue should be resolved bilaterally.