Indian government has rejected Pakistan’s obsession with territorial aggrandisement supported by cross-border terrorism and emphasised that Islamabad should desist from laying untenable claims to Indian territories, which has neither legal validity nor international credibility, said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) here on Thursday. While responding to an unstarred question on the new political map of Pakistan, V Muraleedharan, Minister of State in the MEA, said in Rajya Sabha that Pakistan had released the “so-called” map “making absurd assertions and laying untenable claims to territories in the Gujarat and Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh”. The new political map of Pakistan was unveiled by Prime Minister Imran Khan on the eve of the first anniversary of the withdrawal of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status under Article 370. The map depicts the entirety of Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory while also incorporating Siachen as part of Pakistan. It also incorporates Sir Creek into Pakistani territory as well as parts of the erstwhile princely state of Junagadh. “On 4 August 2020, a so-called political map of Pakistan was unveiled by its Prime Minister making absurd assertions and laying untenable claims to territories in the Indian state of Gujarat and our Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh,” Muraleedharan said. “Government has rejected Pakistan’s obsession with territorial aggrandisement supported by cross-border terrorism. It has also been emphasised that Pakistan should desist from laying untenable claims to Indian territories, which neither have legal validity nor international credibility,” Muraleedharan said. The minister said the government continues to respond appropriately to Pakistan’s “malicious actions and propaganda” including on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir.
