India slams Pak for raising Kashmir during Speakers' meet in Maldives

NEW DELHI: A heated exchange broke out between Indian and Pakistani representatives in Maldives Parliament on Sunday after the neighboring country's delegation veered off topic during a debate on Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) to raise the issue of Kashmir.

Addressing the 4th South Asian Speakers' Summit, Pakistan deputy speaker Qasim Suri tried to use the platform to talk about the Kashmir situation following the abrogation of Article 370, which granted special status to the state.

In a swift intervention, Rajya Sabha Deputy Speaker Harivansh Narayan Singh said that a country which perpetrated genocide in Bangladesh in 1971 and illegally occupied Azad Kashmir has no moral right to raise these issues internationally.

"We strongly object to the raising of internal matters of India at this forum. We also reject the politicization of this forum by raising issues which are extraneous to the theme of this summit," he said.

Continuing his tirade amid strong protests from the Pakistani side, Singh said that Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) is neither a country nor a province yet it is being governed through a Prime Minister, President and a legislature.

Singh added that the forum is only meant to discuss SDGs and the issues raised by Pakistan should not be part of the proceedings.

The Indian delegation in the summit is led by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after India abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories.

Pakistan has been trying to raise the issue at various international fora, but India has maintained that it is an internal matter.