Pakistan urges India to vacate illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir territory
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has strongly rejected Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar’s remarks on Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), calling them misleading and contrary to international law.
The response came from Foreign Office spokesperson Ambassador Shafqat Ali Khan during his weekly press briefing on Thursday.Ambassador Shafqat dismissed Jaishankar’s statement — made at Chatham House in London on March 5, 2025 — as a distortion of facts.
He reaffirmed that Jammu and Kashmir remains an internationally recognised disputed territory, and its final status must be determined through a UN-supervised plebiscite, as per United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.
The Foreign Office spokesperson emphasised that India’s claims over AJK held no legal standing and that any electoral exercise under the Indian Constitution cannot replace Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.
He further said that economic measures taken under military occupation cannot address the long-standing grievances of the Kashmiri people.
Noting that Pakistan reiterates its demand that India vacate the territories it has illegally occupied for the past 77 years, Shafqat stressed that a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute, in line with UNSC resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, was essential for lasting regional stability.
Earlier, while speaking at Chatham House, Jaishankar asserted that the Kashmir issue would be resolved only when the “stolen part” of Kashmir under Pakistan’s “illegal occupation” was returned.
He also claimed that the revocation of Article 370 in 2019 and the October 2024 elections in Jammu and Kashmir were steps toward resolving the dispute.
However, Pakistan firmly rejected these assertions, maintaining that India’s actions in Jammu and Kashmir violate international law and UNSC resolutions.
In August 2019, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) revoked occupied Kashmir’s special status by abolishing Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, a decision later upheld by the Indian Supreme Court in December 2023.
Terrorist’s extradition
Regarding Pakistan’s support to arrest and handing of Daesh’s top-tier terrorist Sharifullah to the United States, the spokesperson said that the intelligence cooperation between Pakistan and the US was longstanding.
“Pakistan’s law enforcement agencies’ efforts against terrorism including [Daesh] have resulted in significant successes. Pursuant to the UN Security Council’s resolutions 1267 and 1373, Pakistan collaborated with the US and handed over Sharifullah. These operations manifested Pakistan’s policy of zero tolerance against terrorism,” he remarked.
