Taking strong exception to Pakistan raising the Kashmir issue during a SAARC video-conference of heads-of-state of member nations on Sunday last, India on Thursday slammed Islamabad saying the neighbour "misused" the occasion as it was "not a political platform but a humanitarian one".
Making New Delhi's stand clear on the issue, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said here Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called for the SAARC nations' video-conference to formulate a joint strategy to combat the coronavirus in the spirit that a crisis of this magnitude did not recognise borders.
Asked about Pakistan using the occasion to raise Kashmir, Kumar said "We believe that the platform was to bring the countries of the region together to address the pandemic.
This was not a political platform, but a humanitarian one, and Pakistan misused it."Kumar's assertion came in the backdrop of Pakistan's State Minister of Health Zafar Mirza on Sunday during the video-conference in which heads of states of SAARC countries were participating called for an immediate lifting of the "lockdown" in Jammu and Kashmir to allow virus containment measures.
Apart from Mirza and Prime Minister Modi, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, Nepalese Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli, Bhutanese premier Lotay Tshering, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Afghan President Ashraf Ghani had participated in the video-conference.
The Pakistan minister had said "Equity in health is a fundamental principle of public health.
In this regard, let me say that it is a matter of concern that COVID-19 has been reported" from Jammu and Kashmir and in view of the health emergency, it is imperative that all "lockdown" there must be lifted immediately.
He also said "Opening up communication and movement would facilitate disseminationof information, allow distribution of medical supplies and allow containment...To proceed unimpeded."
Indian government sources that day had said Pakistan's attempt to "politicise" a humanitarian
issue by its "unwarranted" statement on Kashmir during the video-conference on coronavirus reflected "very poorly" on it.