India, Pakistan clash over Kashmir at UN

Ambassador Tarar defends President Zardari's statement at UN General Assembly on Jammu and Kashmir.

UNITED NATIONS: Representatives of Pakistan and India had a verbal duel in the UN General Assembly on Monday night over the decades-old Jammu and Kashmir dispute between the two South Asian countries.

Reacting to Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishna's assertion earlier in the day that last week's remarks by President Asif Ali Zardari remarks on Kashmir were "unwarranted", Pakistan's Deputy Permanent Representative Raza Bashir Tarar defended the Pakistani leader's statement as the dispute, he said, remained unresolved.

"Let me begin by emphasizing that the reference to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in the President of Pakistan's statement was not 'unwarranted'," Ambassador Tarar said, while exercising his right of reply to the Indian minister's statement, in which Krishna had also claimed that the Himalayan state was an "integral part" of India.

"Let me also make it absolutely clear that Jammu and Kashmir is neither an integral part of India nor has it ever been," the Pakistani envoy told the 193-member Assembly.

Zardari had reaffirmed in his speech that Pakistan "will continue to support the right of the people of Jammu & Kashmir to peacefully choose their destiny in accordance with the UN Security Council's long-standing resolutions on this matter".

Kashmir, he said, remained a symbol of the failures of the United Nations system rather than its strengths. The president went on to say that a solution could only be reached in an environment of cooperation.

Indian delegate Vinay Kumar, responding to references by Ambassador Tarar of Pakistan, insisted that Jammu and Kashmir states were an integral part of India, adding that Pakistan's "illegal occupation" of parts of the region was in violation of India's territorial integrity and international law.

India, he added, rejected Pakistan's claim in its entirety. Exercising his right of reply for a second time, Ambassador Tarar said the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir had been set out in Security Council resolutions and agreed upon by both Pakistan and India.

As such, characterizing the region as an integral part of India was untenable, he said, adding that the people of Jammu and Kashmir had not exercised their right to self-determination.