India vows to have 'physical jurisdiction' over PoK

India will one day have “physical jurisdiction” over Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) areas, which are currently under illegal occupation of Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday.

He also ruled out any engagement between India and Pakistan in near future, let alone on the sideline of the United Nations General Assembly.

“Our position on PoK (Pakistan Occupied Kashmir) has always been and will always be very clear. (The) PoK is part of India and we expect one day that we will have the physical jurisdiction over it,” said Jaishankar, while speaking on the achievement of the Ministry of External Affairs during the first 100 days of the second term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Government. He was replying to a question on New Delhi's approach on J&K areas currently under illegal occupation of Pakistan.

He made the comment amid escalating tension between India and Pakistan over Modi Government's August 5 decisions to strip J&K of its special status and reorganize the state into two Union Territories.

Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh too recently said that whenever New Delhi would hold talks with Islamabad, the only issue on the agenda would be modalities for India taking back control of J&K areas under illegal occupation of Pakistan.

Jaishankar also said that the New Delhi's recent decisions on J&K were “internal affairs” of India and not a bilateral issue which could be discussed with Pakistan.

He noted that the Article 370 was “a temporary provision” which had actually become dysfunctional.

“It (Article 370 of the Constitution) was being arbitraged by some narrow set of people for their own gains. By doing so they were impeding development and feeding a sense of separatism. The separatism was being utilised by Pakistan to carry out cross-border terrorism (against India)," he said, explaining the rationale of Modi Government's August 5 decisions.

It was the first press-conference by the former Indian Foreign Service officer after he took over as External Affairs Minister of the second Modi Government on May 31 last.

He underlined that India's position on Kashmir has been clear since 1972 and it would not change.

New Delhi has been maintaining that the 1972 Simla Agreement between India and Pakistan and the 1999 Lahore Declaration had left no scope for the UN or any third party to play any role in resolving the “outstanding issues” between the two South Asian neighbours.

Both Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan are likely to be in New York next week to address the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), which is likely to witness a war of words between the two on the issue of J&K and cross-border terrorism. The two leaders are expected to address the General Assembly on the same day – September 27.

“Just look at the climate of relations right now and that should give you the answer,” said External Affairs Minister, when a journalist asked him on the possibility of Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan meeting on the sideline of the UNGA.

He also slammed Khan Government in Islamabad for continued persecution of minorities in Pakistan. “Here is a country where minority numbers have gone down so much, I think they have even stopped putting the numbers in public domain,” he said, adding: “If there is an objective human rights audit of this region, I am pretty confident about which country will come the last.”