New Delhi: India conveyed its strong protest to the UK government today over the recent visit by British High Commissioner in Pakistan to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), saying it was “highly objectionable” and “unacceptable”.
Jane Marriott, the first woman High Commissioner of UK to Pakistan, travelled to Mirpur in PoK on January 10 and met its so-called President Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry there.
According to a Pakistan government statement, they discussed projects being funded by the British government in PoK and problems faced by overseas Kashmiris in UK.
“India has taken a serious note of the highly objectionable visit of the British High Commissioner in Islamabad, along with a UK Foreign Office official, to Pakistan occupied Kashmir on 10 January 2024,” India’s External Affairs Ministry said in a statement here today.
“Such infringement of India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is unacceptable,” it added.
The ministry said that Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra has lodged “a strong protest with the British High Commissioner in India on this infringement.”
It re-emphasized that “the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are, have been and shall always remain an integral part of India.”
The delegation, headed by Marriott, also included Richard Lindsay, head of the Pakistan and Afghanistan Security Operations Department in the British Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
