NEW DELHI: India on Thursday termed the comments made by many US Congressmen on the Kashmir situation as regrettable and said that it reflected a very limited understanding of the country’s history.
External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that the platform should have been used to ascertain facts on state-sponsored cross-border terrorism rather than attacking New Delhi.
“It is regrettable that a few members of the US Congress used the Congressional hearing on human rights in South Asia to question the measures taken recently to safeguard life, peace and security in Kashmir,” he said.
The MEA spokesperson said that cross-border terrorism endangered the most fundamental of human rights — the right to life. “The government remains responsible for and responsive to the safety and well-being of its citizens,” he added. The Centre on August 5 withdrew special status of J&K and bifurcated it into two Union territories.
Kumar said India has taken note of comments of Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice Wells that Pakistan needs to do much more in curbing terrorism in its territory in a “credible, verifiable and irreversible” manner.
During the hearing at the House Foreign Affairs Committee on human rights in South Asia on Tuesday, top American lawmakers devoted most of the time discussing the current situation in Kashmir and expressed concern over security clampdown.