India rebuffs OIC’s remarks on Kashmir, tells it to confront Pakistan over terrorism
New Delhi: India has rejected the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s latest remarks on Jammu & Kashmir and told the grouping to press Pakistan to address terrorism originating from territories under its control. In a statement issued on Wednesday, the Ministry of External Affairs said the OIC had no standing to comment on India’s internal affairs and accused it of providing a platform for Islamabad’s propaganda.
The response followed a joint communiqué issued by the OIC contact group on Jammu & Kashmir, which met on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations general assembly in New York. The meeting provided Pakistan with another opportunity to seek coordinated international support for its position on Kashmir, which New Delhi firmly contests.
Describing the communiqué’s references to India as “unwarranted and factually incorrect”, the ministry reiterated that the entire union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh were integral and inalienable parts of India. It said repeated assertions driven by political considerations could not alter that position.
New Delhi also questioned the OIC’s credibility, arguing that its repeated endorsement of Pakistan’s narrative undermined the grouping’s standing. The statement challenged both the substance of the communiqué and the organization’s authority to pronounce on matters India considers strictly internal.
The ministry’s principal demand was that the OIC turn its attention to terrorism rather than facilitate Pakistan’s allegations against India. Accusing Islamabad of a documented record of supporting and sponsoring terrorism, it urged the grouping to counsel Pakistan to examine its own conduct and address the continuing threat from territories under its control.
At the New York meeting, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Pakistan, Ishaq Dar, had urged OIC members to maintain a common position on Jammu & Kashmir at the UN and other international forums. According to Pakistan’s state broadcaster, Radio Pakistan, he also sought the reversal of Indian measures taken since August 5, 2019, and the release of people he described as political prisoners.
Dar further called for access to Jammu and Kashmir for the OIC’s special envoy, international human rights mechanisms, journalists and independent observers. Those demands formed part of Pakistan’s diplomatic campaign at the meeting; India’s response rejected the premise that the grouping had a legitimate role in examining the territory’s affairs.
The OIC is a 57-member intergovernmental organization, while its Kashmir contact group comprises Azerbaijan, Niger, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Turkiye. The communique came from that smaller forum, whose latest intervention again exposed the divide between Pakistan’s efforts to internationalize the Kashmir issue and India’s rejection of the OIC’s involvement.
