Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin. Image courtesy: Twitter
The US government has finally made changes in its recent media note on Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin, removing the phrase “Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir”, which sparked a controversy in India.
The US State Department replaced the reference with “the state of Jammu and Kashmir” in its June 26 media note on the Hizbul Mujahideen chief, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply to a question from Congress MPs K V Thomas and Mullapally Ramachandran.
New Delhi initially sought to justify the US State Department’s reference to “Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir” in the media note issued during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington DC. It, however, later conveyed to the US government that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir belongs to India.
The US State Department had issued the media note in Washington DC on June 26, while declaring Syed Salahuddin as a specially designated global terrorist. It was issued on the same day Modi had his first meeting with Trump at the White House.
“Taking cognizance of this, the ministry’s spokesperson had issued a statement on June 29, 2017, reiterating the well-known position of India that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India,” said Singh.
“The matter was also taken up with the US government, following which the media note has been amended by the US State Department, in which the reference to ‘Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir’ has been replaced by ‘the state of Jammu and Kashmir’,” he said.
The BJP-led government had drawn flak from the Opposition Congress for not objecting to the use of the term. “The use of the term merely affirms our position that Syed Salahuddin has been involved in cross-border terrorism against India,” the Ministry of External Affairs had said in a statement issued on June 29.
The Congress, however, had pointed out that India had protested against the use of the same phrase by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, as recently as on June 7.
The MEA later came out with another statement reiterating New Delhi’s position that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, including the areas under illegal occupation of Pakistan, was an integral part of India. “The US government has been apprised of the same once again,” Gopal Baglay, spokesperson of the MEA, had said.