MEA briefing: India lodges strong protest with Pakistan over Qureshi's call to Mirwaiz; complains to UK about Kashmir event

Raveesh Kumar, the official spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs in a press briefing on Thursday said that India has raised strong objections to the interference of Pakistan in India’s internal matters which raise a threat to its unity and violate its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Kumar was referring to the controversy over Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi calling Kashmiri separatist leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Wednesday. Kumar told the reporters that India has also lodged a complaint with British authorities against the organisation of a proposed event at the UK Parliament on Kashmir which Qureshi is expected to attend. Reiterating India’s stand on the issue, Kumar said that India condemns such behaviour by Pakistan that fuels anti-India sentiment. The MEA in its statement on Thursday night called it a “brazen attack” to subvert India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. The late evening statement read that the Pakistan high commissioner was “cautioned” that persistence of such behaviour by Pakistan will have “implications”. Later, on Thursday, Pakistan’s foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua summoned Indian high commissioner Ajay Bisaria to lodge a protest over the summoning of Qureshi .