The “inaccurate” maps of India and Pakistan published on US State Department’s website have been removed following a strong protest by India, reported BBC News on Tuesday.
The maps did not highlight the divided territory of Kashmir as disputed.
According to a report by Indian news agency Press Trust of India (PTI), India contacted the US State Department on Monday to correct the maps that were showing the disputed territory of Kashmir as a part of Pakistan.
The US State Department, in response, removed the maps on Tuesday, as the state department spokesperson Victoria Nuland confirmed that the maps had "some inaccuracies which were associated with the boundaries of some geographic features" the BBC report cited.
"We will put up the new map when we acquire one that we are confident is accurate," she said.
The report by PTI also quoted the US Embassy spokesperson in India as saying that the errors in the maps were not intentional and were "not meant to represent the same precision and intricacies of professional or scientific map."
This is not the first incident of India protesting against an incorrect map of their territory as earlier a Chinese brochure about an investment in India showed the state of Arunachal Pradesh as part of China and also challenged India’s claims in the Kashmir region.
On another occasion, the book of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan also printed an incorrect map of Kashmir, but the publication was taken back within a week for correction and the advance copies of the book in India were also recalled before any official complaint could be launched.
COMMENTS (30)
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I am a Kashmiri and I can't believe any true Kashmiri would want to stay with India. The proof is our fore-father's and current residents have given enough sacrifices to justify that i.e., freedom from Indian occupation. To join Pakistan or not can only be decided by the Kashmiris only after Indian Armies leave who has become part of painful daily life. I can't believe why India is not getting it. After all their only fear is other frustrated states who are waiting to get out from under Indian control will break away too. But that should not be the reason for occupation & oppression. We not only feel like another oppressed nation around the world but we are an oppressed nation.
I was really upset that my home was shown as part of Pakistan. Thanks for correcting the map USA, now please help making the border permanent with whole of Kashmir under India. I wonder why Pakistanis dream so much that we will join them. Looking at their current state and religious intolerance we do not want to join Pakistan. It is either independent nation or India, certainly not Pakistan.
@Dave: Indians are so insecure hahah they know they're occupying Baluchistan is to Pakistan what Punjab is to India
Kashmir there is no dispute it Pakistani territory by what logic is India still occupying it India has no right to claim it
Bet 70% of American can not even identify America in global map this mistake is alright.. they lack intillactual resource
Kashmir to India is what Baluchistan is to Pakistan.
@anup: you say "truth will also prevail upon Baloochistan and sindh " why any need for truth..???? Sindh voted in favour of Pakistan with majority and Baluchistan also joined Pakistan on their own...these areas were not usurped by Pakistan...so what truth you need over there...??? Indian agents have been trying to incite people over there through money, terrorism and conspiracies to break these rightful parts of Pakistan but still have not been successful....!!!! and will never be able to do it....!!!! but remember again.... Hyderabad (India), Junagadh, Manawadar, Kashmir wanted to join Pakistan,.....but...... India usurped them all...so time will come when truth will prevail....!!!! and Kashmir as well as other Indian usurped parts will also become part of Pakistan.... because truth is for eternity and money (which India might have now) is only temporary......!!!!!!
Whatever! but! ""Kashmir banega Pakistan"
@MYL truth will also prevail upon Baloochistan and sindh . case is not closed yet for POK which occupies the major portion of kashmir , those cases will have to be reopened ,if not fairly ,then by force .
@Omar, You are absolutely right. I love to see Pakistan as secular country.. Until then Indian Kasmir should remain part of India and you can continue to hold POK.
Kashmiris have much more in common with Pakistan. It's simple as that. We will get Kashmir back. As far as Pakistanis calling for support from the "ummah", I think it's pretty ridiculous. We need to build our economy, liberate our people, get rid of intolerance against minorities, build a secular education system and much much more. We need to stop this finger pointing at every little thing....get up and take charge! Enough of this begging. India has come a long way since Partition, we are still begging for money so we can support our corrupt military.
@Jack: You wouldn't be saying that today had your presidents and secretaries of state (assuming you're American) not meddled into our affairs; had they not supported army generals, had they backed the people of Pakistan and aided their education, health and development instead. We've been used as mercenaries, to kill and repel the Soviets at one point, and now the Taliban.
Thanks for advising us, but you better give some of it to your policy makers in DC as well...
@Observer: I wish you WERE an 'observer'. Simply need to look at the Hajj. The best example to refute your dumb claim. Muslims from all corners of the world, shoulder to shoulder, tolerant and supportive of each other, performing their rites with total dedication.
It's not Islam or the Muslims that cause problems. It's their rulers. Corrupt, inept, distanced from their masses and clinging onto foreign powers for illegitimate support. Unfortunately, they're all over the Muslim world. The Arab Spring is a proof. And still many remain. If you pull out these despots from the equation, Muslims can once again prove to be a functioning Ummah. They were one nearly a century ago, no?
@MYL: Dude - there is a lot of crap printed in many Indian newspapers (and Pak as well) - yours would just add to that. You may not notice that most of the Indians who take time to make reasonable posts (I agree that our misguided patriots also sometimes crash the party) will not spend any time in doing the same in say ToI. Maybe in The Hindu which is a fairly sensible newspaper sort of like Dawn (not sensationalist like our ToI or HT or your The Nation), but is unfortunately mainly read in the South. Be thankful that you have good online media - at least one possibility of reading the truth, at least in the comments of others.
I know the atoot ang indian talking of akhand bharat will be p** off.
@anup: For the last six decades this is going on and still you are dreaming of having a voice loud enough to be heard? US and the West are simply doing this to remind us..."either follow us or we have the ace viz. Kashmir up our sleeves". We Indians have become dumb due to our inflated egos.We are becoming laughing stock across the globe when it comes to Kashmir...every other day a map is being published which shows KASHMIR as part of Pakistan...recently the Chinese ambassador to India asked one Indian journalist to "SHUT UP" when he objected for showing kashmir as part of Pakistan....so much for our voices being heard...
@anil: ok ...go and live in your own niche of injustice, aggression and selfishness....one day truth will prevail and all the rightful parts of Pakistan will become part of it....and remember that will happen without any further war or disputes....because Truth always prevails.... remember Pakistan did not occupy the 2/3rd of Kashmir...Pakistan liberated the 2/3rd part from its usurpers....simple....and case closed....!! by the way you can see that freedom of speech prevails at ET....If I had tried to post aggressive comments like Anil, Asok etc in any Indian newspaper...they certainly would not have been read by editors in Toto.......just because they came from Pakistanis.....!!!..let alone printing them.........
@MYL...
your r absolutely wrong . Money doesn't speak , It is might which is right .Pak has also illegally captured 2/3rd of Kashmir. Moreover India doesn't care UN resolution ,because UN resolution also is in favor of India . Kashmir is still disputed and according to UN, Kashmir has to be reunited and has to come under Indian control before solving this dispute . Do u think once Indian gov gets the control of whole Kashmir , it will give that half to pak again . India gov won't care some Muslim population who are in favor of partition . Indian gov will cave in to domestic pressure . I think all Pakistanis have forgotten that Kashmir is disputed .
@Saqlain: My friend, have you noticed that you are the only Muslim nation that keeps asking for 'Ummah' support? The Arabs settle their issues with the Arab league and don't bring up intra-Arab disputes into the OIC; Indonesia and Malaysia have long ago woken up to the fact that becoming self-reliant and growing ones economy yields superior results to becoming a global pain-in-the-nether regions. You guys will never learn that - it is either the US or China or the Ummah - in fact I see recently that even Russia is expected to swoop in and save a suicidal Pakistan. Give up the blame games and get real, the future is slipping out of your hands.
@ashok sai: Hyderabad (India), Junagadh, Manawadar, Kashmir wanted to join Pakistan, India usurped them all....still you say "no redrawing of borders...you already have redrawn borders...aggressively and unjustly......
@anup: Indian money speaks and hides the truth......a boundary which is recognized by UN but still changed on website by the super power USA ....!!!!! due to "anger" shown by usurping country(India)....money talks.....its true....... so UN is of no consequence and India is bigger than UN resolutions....!!!!!!
@Saqlain: The concept of "ummah" as prescribed by Islam is simply unreal. To require people, who are racially, ethnically, culturally and linguistically apart, to abandon their native self to form this "community" based on religious following alone is outright ridiculous. Even the Arabs, whose language, culture and values Islam represents cannot form a single "Ummah" or "nation". So, what is the bond between diverging converts?!! How can an Arab, an African or an Indonesian possibly call themselves "brothers", which is a genetic relationship based on common parentage. That is why there are so many sects and factions in the practice of Islam. Some of these sects cannot even tolerate each other, while some do not even recognize the legitimacy of others. Hence, there is no "ummah"!!!
People who want to draw based on religion will one day ask whole world to convert to their religion, which is not good. so any one claims J & K based on relegion should be sidelined, US did the right thing by removing the map from its official web
As if digital image of a map on an official US website will trigger the eventualities that will lead to the inaccuracies suddenly materialising into demarcation of the disputed border in favour of India. Please get real, let's not blow this out of proportions.
@Junooni
Agressors?!!!
On that account, US should support some Indians' claim of Akhand Bharath. After all, Muslims of Pakistan and Afghanistan are aggressors and by your logic, they should leave that land to us and leave.
The problem is we dont have "Ummah". All our brotherly Islamic nations are not united which is why US & Other western countries are supporting our enemies. Our Foreign Ministry hasn`t even issued a statement condemning this. We should make effort to rope in the Islamic Nations rather than running behind china & other unislamic countries.
US has always supported the agressors. The Kashim India occupies is under forced army control. Indian Army. Let people there decide what they want and we will know to whom Kashmir belongs to. Right ?
pathetic indian conspiracy!
Nice reciprocal action from the US on this sensitive issue, no redrawing of borders for ever. We don't incur into anybody's territory also we won't allow anyone to trespass ours.
Awaiting a loyal, honest and concerned Pakistani to step forward and raise voice against this intentional accuracy..