India rejects 'global dimensions' to Kashmir issue

India on Thursday rejected the contention of an Islamabad conference that the Kashmir issue had "global dimensions", and said that Pakistan needed to instead "vacate its illegal occupation" of parts of Kashmir.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup, in response to a question on a two-day conference in Islamabad on Kashmir, said: "We completely reject the insinuations by vested interests against India, which has rightful sovereignty over the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir."

"We also stress there are no 'global dimensions' of the Kashmir issue except in the minds of those who seek to needlessly internationalise a bilateral matter."

The spokesperson also said that Pakistan needed "to vacate its illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir and address the suffering caused to millions in those parts".

The two-day Kashmir Seminar, which began on Wednesday, is being held at Jinnah Convention Centre in Islamabad.

On Wednesday, the conference urged the international community that it can no longer "stay a mute spectator towards the matchless struggle of the people of Kashmir to achieve their inalienable right to self-determination".

The seminar was organised by the Mirpur University of Science and Technology to "deliberate upon global dimensions of the Kashmir dispute and current Indian plans to suppress the Kashmir liberation movement".

--IANS

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