NEW DELHI: India on Thursday rubbished Pakistan Army chief Gen Asim Munir’s remarks describing Kashmir as the “jugular vein” of Pakistan and said Islamabad’s only link with Jammu and Kashmir is the vacation of illegally occupied parts of the union territory.
The Indian side also dismissed the Pakistan foreign office’s contention that Mumbai terror attacks conspirator Tahawwur Rana is a Canadian citizen who hadn’t renewed his Pakistani origin documents for the past two decades, saying Islamabad cannot obscure the country’s failure to act against terrorists.
Addressing an event in Islamabad on Wednesday, Munir said Pakistan will not forget the issue of Kashmir and will stand by the Kashmiri people in the “struggle against the Indian occupation”. He also contended the Indian Army had never been able to intimidate or coerce Pakistan.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal responded to Munir’s comments by reiterating India’s stated position that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India. “How can anything foreign be there in a jugular vein?” he told a weekly media briefing.
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“This [Jammu and Kashmir] is a union territory of India. Its only relationship with Pakistan is the vacation of illegally occupied territories by that country,” Jaiswal said.
While speaking at the Overseas Pakistanis Convention in Islamabad on Wednesday, Munir said the stance of Pakistan’s government and army on Kashmir is clear: “It was our jugular vein, it is our jugular vein, we will not forget it. We will not leave our Kashmiri brethren in their heroic struggle against the Indian occupation. We have fought the war for Kashmir.”
Munir reiterated the two-nation theory and said the religions, customs, traditions, thoughts and ambitions of Pakistan and India are different. Referring to fears that Pakistan will not be able to attract investments because of the activity of terrorist groups, he said: “If the 1.3-million Indian Army, with all their wherewithal, cannot intimidate us and they cannot coerce us, [do you think] these terrorists can subdue the armed forces of Pakistan?”
Responding to a question on the Pakistan foreign office’s assertion that Mumbai terror attacks conspirator Tahawwur Rana is a Canadian citizen, Jaiswal said Islamabad should bring to justice other perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks that it “continues to shield”.
“Pakistan may try very hard but its reputation as the epicentre of global terrorism will not diminish. The extradition of Rana is a reminder yet again to Pakistan that it needs to act to bring to justice other perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks whom it continues to shield,” Jaiswal said.
Many people were killed in the 2008 terror attacks on India’s financial hub and it is “shameful that Pakistan has not moved forward till now”, he said.
Rana, a Canadian citizen and native of Pakistan, was brought to India from the US by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) team last week after the 64-year-old former Pakistan Army officer exhausted all legal avenues to stay his extradition. The NIA formally arrested Rana and a court remanded him to the custody of the agency, which is interrogating him to uncover more about the planning and execution of the attacks that killed 166 people.
Rana has been charged in India with conspiracy, murder, commission of a terrorist act and forgery in connection with his alleged involvement in the Mumbai attacks that were carried out by a 10-member team of the Pakistan-based Laskhar-e-Taiba (LeT), a designated foreign terrorist group.