Following reports that Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is convening a cabinet meeting over the situation in Kashmir, the government reiterated on Thursday that Kashmir is solely an internal affair.
The Pakistan Foreign Office also briefed the ambassadors of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in this connection.
"Terrorism is terrorism.
No amount of parsing and justification on the part of Pakistan is going to change it, " External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Vikas Swarup said in his weekly media briefing here.
At least 38 people have died in large - scale violence in Kashmir following the death of top Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Burhan Wani, 22, who was killed in a gunfight on July 8 along with two of his associates.
"Our internal affairs are solely ours to handle. "
Swarup said.
"Any effort by any other party, claiming it as theirs or trying to interfere and seeking to internationalise the issue will not change it. "
The spokesperson said that the "world today has a clear view of which country in our region covets the territory of others, uses terrorism as a matter of state policy, provides sanctuary to UN designated terrorists and terrorist groups and violates human rights".
"In so far as prospect of dialogue with Pakistan, India has never shied away from dialogue with Pakistan, " he stated.
"However, it is incumbent on Pakistan to create the right atmosphere for a productive dialogue to take place.
Talks and terror cannot go hand in hand. "
In response to another question, Swarup said that the Indian High Commissioner was also summoned by the Pakistan Foreign Office on July 11 and a demarche was made on him on the situation in the Jammu and Kashmir.
"Our High Commissioner had responded that the matter is a domestic issue, internal to India and that Pakistan has no locus standi in the matter, " he said.
"The High Commissioner also stated that India rejects the demarche.
For the same reason that this is a domestic issue, internal to India, we see no reason to involve Pakistan, which has no locus standi in the matter. "
he added.
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