Pakistan must vacate ‘illegal’ occupation of Indian territory: India dismisses Islamabad’s reaction to PM Modi’s remarks

India on Tuesday asked Pakistan to stop spreading ‘lies’ and ‘vacate’ the illegally occupied territory in Kashmir after the neighbouring country made remarks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's view on the same in a podcast with Lex Fridman.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, reacting to the comments made by Islamabad, said that Pakistan should “vacate Indian territory under its illegal and forcible occupation.”

“We note that Pakistan has once again made some comments about the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” he told the media upon being asked about Islamabad's comments.

He said Pakistan was the biggest ‘roadblock’ on the path of peace and security in the Kashmir region.

“The world knows that the real issue is Pakistan's active promotion and sponsorship of cross-border terrorism. In fact, this is the biggest roadblock to peace and security in the region,” Jaiswal said.

He asked Pakistan to stop “spreading lies”.

“Instead of spreading lies, Pakistan should vacate Indian territory under its illegal and forcible occupation,” the MEA spokesperson said.

What did PM Modi say?

In a recent podcast with Lex Fridman, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed that all his attempts at reconciling with Pakistan was met with “hostility and betrayal”.

He noted that he even travelled to Lahore for advocating peace, but to no avail.

“I even personally travelled to Lahore in the pursuit of peace. When I became Prime Minister, I specially invited Pakistan to my swearing-in ceremony so we could turn over a new leaf. Yet, every noble attempt at fostering peace was met with hostility and betrayal,” Modi said in the podcast released on Sunday.

The Prime Minister's comments on the podcast were made days after Pakistan's remarks against India following the attack on the Jaffar Express train by Baloch rebels in which passengers were taken hostage.

Pakistan's reaction

Following the release of the podcast and PM Modi's remark, the foreign office of Pakistan had released a statement on Monday.

It described the comments as “misleading and one-sided”, adding that PM Modi's remarks “omit the Jammu and Kashmir dispute”. It said that the disputes remained unresolved for seven decades in spite of India's “assurances to the United Nations, Pakistan and the Kashmiri people”.