Frivolous & pointless: India snubs Pak for its Kashmir remark at UN's Russia debate

New York, Oct 13: India on Wednesday slammed Pakistan for raking up the Kashmir issue during the United Nations General Assembly debate on Russia for making "pointless" remarks.

"We have witnessed, unsurprisingly, yet again, an attempt by one delegation to misuse this forum and make frivolous and pointless remarks against my country," ANI quoted India's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ruchira Kamboj, as saying.

The Indian diplomat stated that such remarks deserves collective contempt from a mindset which repeatedly utters falsehoods. "It is important, however, to set the record straight. The entire territory of Jammu and Kashmir is and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India irrespective of what the representative of Pakistan believes or covets. We call on Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorism so that our citizens can enjoy their right to life and liberty," Kamboj said.

In his remarks to the UNGA emergency special session that was convened on the Ukrainian conflict, Pakistan's ambassador to the UN Munir Akram raised the issue of Kashmir, saying that under international law, the right of self-determination applies to peoples who are under foreign or colonial domination and those who have not yet exercised the right to self-determination "as in the case of Jammu and Kashmir", PTI reported.

He said the exercise of the right to self-determination should be conducted in an environment free of military occupation and under impartial auspices species, preferably under the supervision of the United Nations.

Earlier, the UNGA adopted a resolution condemning the Russian annexation of the four Ukrainian regions where 143 members voted in favour of the resolution while five voted against it. A total of 35 countries abstained from the resolution, including India.

However, India expressed deep concern at the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, including the targeting of civilian infrastructure and deaths of civilians.