‘No More International’: India considers Kashmir battle ‘won’

The Kashmir dispute is not an international issue anymore, it is an issue between India and Pakistan, says Akbaruddin.

NEW DELHI: The Indian government believes it has won the battle along the Line of Control (LoC) by preventing the ‘internationalisation’ of the lingering dispute over the Himalayan state of Kashmir.

In an interaction with reporters in Hyderabad, external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said the dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir was no longer an international issue.

“[The Kashmir dispute] is not an international issue anymore … it is an issue between India and Pakistan,” said Akbaruddin. “No one on any international forum is focused on this issue … nobody is raising the matter elsewhere … this is success in itself,” he added.

While Pakistan has repeatedly called for a plebiscite in Kashmir in accordance with the United Nations resolutions, India has always maintained that the dispute is a bilateral issue between the two nations.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947 - two of them over Kashmir.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan by the UN-monitored LoC, but is claimed in full by both countries. It lies at the heart of more than 60 years of hostility between India and Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2013.