India on Wednesday strongly responded to the Pakistan government commemorating August 5 as 'Youm-e-Istehsal (Day of Exploitation)', calling it an absurd and futile move to spread "malicious propaganda".
August 5, 2019 was a crucial day in India's history, as it was the date that Article 370 of the Constitution was abrogated, which saw statehood revoked for Jammu and Kashmir, and the erstwhile state bifurcated into two Union Territories—Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh—by October 31 that year.
In that regard, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal reiterated that the abrogation of Article 370 into two UTs was entirely an internal matter for India.
"Pakistan's desperate attempts to peddle falsehoods are intended solely to deflect international attention from its own dismal human rights record and its status as the global epicenter of terrorism," he said in a statement, urging Pakistan to look at the violence taking place in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK).
The region, which India has always said is illegally occupied by Pakistan, has been beset by violence and media suppression as it goes through what it calls Assembly elections.
Recent weeks have seen Pakistani security forces resort to lethal violence, targeted killings, and attempts to silence civil rights protests led by the local populace, with the ban on Al Jazeera being the latest casualty of the unrest in the region.
Calling the whataboutery an example of the "hypocrisy" of the Pakistani regime, Jaiswal also reiterated that Islamabad ought to crack down on the terror networks operating on its soil instead of "engaging in predictable diplomatic theatre".
