India spews venom against CPEC

ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: Claiming Occupied Kashmir as the country's integral part, the Indian External Affairs Ministry on Thursday said Pakistan can write as many letters as it wants to the United Nations but the situation will not change in the occupied territory.

MEA spokesperson Vikas Swarup's venomous statement was in response to a letter by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif calling upon United Nations Secretary-General to send a fact-finding mission to Indian Occupied Kashmir, which is facing a grim human rights situation.

"They (Pakistan) can write as many letters as they want (to UN), won't change ground situation that J&K is an integral part of India," Swarup claimed in his statements as reported by Indian media.

Swarup also raised objections to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), claiming that corridor mega-project passes through Kashmir which it accused Pakistan of illegally occupying.

Swarup's statements came a day after the Pakistani prime minister sent a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in response to his acknowledgment of Pakistan's commitment to the Kashmir cause.

The prime minister's letter also pointed out that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's remarks on Balochistan were an attempt to divert the international community's attention from the Kashmir dispute.

PM Sharif has said Pakistan would continue to extend support to Kashmiris in the occupied territory.

"We will continue to extend political and diplomatic to Kashmiris until justice is done to the people of Kashmir and the brutalities against them are ended," he said.

Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria told a weekly press briefing today that Pakistan was ready to hold dialogue with India whenever the latter was ready. He, however, stressed that the Kashmir issue would be part of agenda whenever talks are held with India.

"We cannot accept preconditions in talks," he said.

The Foreign Office spokesperson said the international community needed to play its role in the resolution of the Kashmir dispute, adding that the United Nations also had a responsibility to play in this regard.