India's external affairs
minister took on Pakistan at the United Nations on Monday for raising
the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
S. M. Krishna told the General
Assembly that India has resumed dialogue with Pakistan and wants to
normalize relations. But he lashed out at a speech last week by
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardarif, saying the neighboring nation had
no business meddling in India's predominantly Muslim state of Jammu and
Kashmir, which India claims as sovereign territory.
"An unwarranted reference has
been made to Jammu and Kashmir from this podium," he said, adding, "We
wish to make it abundantly clear that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral
part of India."
Zardari said in his speech that
Kashmir remained "a symbol of the failures of the United Nations system
rather than its strengths." He said a solution could only be reached in
an "environment of cooperation."
As the annual high-level meeting
of the General Assembly wound down Monday night, representatives of
India and Pakistan traded several rounds of rebuttals before a mostly
empty chamber. The Pakistani delegation was seen smiling and shaking
their heads as an Indian diplomat issued yet another reply to a
statement by Pakistan.
A violent separatist insurgency
that started in 1989 drew a crackdown by Indian forces that has killed
about 68,000 people in Kashmir, where public resentment against Indian
rule runs deep.
The rebellion is largely
suppressed, with occasional flare-ups. The Indian army said last week
that a fierce gunbattle killed a suspected rebel and a soldier.
Earlier this month, Indian
police arrested Merajuddin Wani, one of the longest-surviving rebel
commanders in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
