Representatives of India and Pakistan had a verbal exchange over the decades-old Jammu and Kashmir dispute in the General Assembly Third Committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural issues, officials said. Reacting to Indian representative Aruna Kumar Vun Vudavalli s claim that Kashmir was an integral part of India, his Pakistani counterpart Bilal Hayee said it was an internationally recognized disputed territory. Pakistan rejects the Indian statement that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of the Union of India, he added. Hayee went on to say that the Security Council s demand for free and fair plebiscite under the UN auspices still remains to be implemented. Dealing with the Indian delegate s comments about human rights in Pakistan, he said, No one, particularly India, should offer any lessons on human rights since India itself is in illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir for the last six decades in violation of the several UN Security Council Resolutions. This illegal occupation is being sustained by an unprecedented and massive concentration of security forces in Jammu and Kashmir and by using, inter alia, rape as a weapon of state policy to suppress the indigenous struggle of Kashmiri people for self-determination. These systematic violations of human rights have been well documented by various international human rights organizations. The Indian representative noted that his country and Pakistan had been discussing outstanding issues bilaterally. Four rounds of dialogue had taken place since 2004 and more would follow, in a process that had led to a significant improvement in relations. Bilateral issues should be raised bilaterally, not in international forums, the Indian representative said.
