India protests to US over American envoy Donald Blome’s visit to Pak-occupied Kashmir
In April, New Delhi described US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s visit to PoK as “condemnable” and accused her of violating the country’s sovereignty
NEW DELHI: India has protested to the US over a visit to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) by the American ambassador in Islamabad, whose repeated references to the region as “Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)” did not go down well in New Delhi.
Donald Blome, the US ambassador to Pakistan, made a three-day visit to PoK beginning October 2 to promote the bilateral partnership and highlight people-to-people ties, according to a statement from the US embassy in Islamabad. The statement referred to the region as AJK.
“Our objection to the visit and meetings in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir by the US ambassador to Pakistan has been conveyed to the US side,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told a weekly news briefing without giving details.
People familiar with the matter said the Indian side was irked by several references to AJK by the US side, including by the ambassador. The Indian position is that the region is under illegal occupation by Pakistan.
India has criticised other such visits to PoK from the US side. In April, New Delhi described US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s visit to PoK as “condemnable” and accused her of violating the country’s sovereignty by travelling to a region illegally occupied by Pakistan.
During his visit, Blome met “AJK prime minister” Tanveer Ilyas and academic, business, cultural and civil society representatives.
While in Muzaffarabad, he visited the Quaid-e-Azam Memorial Dak Bungalow and said in a tweet: “The Quaid-e-Azam Memorial Dak Bungalow symbolizes the cultural and historical richness of Pakistan and was famously visited by [Muhammad Ali] Jinnah in 1944. I’m honored to visit during my first trip to AJK.”
Responding to a separate question, Bagchi expressed concern at the increase in deaths of Indian prisoners in Pakistani jails. He described the death of six prisoners over the past nine months as “alarming”.
“Six Indian prisoners, five of them fishermen, have died in Pakistani custody in the last nine months or so,” he said.
“All six of them, interestingly, had completed their sentences, but they were…illegally detained by Pakistan despite completing their sentences and in spite of multiple demands from the Indian side for their release and repatriation,” he added.
“These increasing incidents of death of Indian prisoners is alarming and raises the question of their safety and security in Pakistani jails. The matter has been raised by our high commission in Islamabad as well as with the Pakistani high commission here,” Bagchi said.
Pakistan is “duty-bound” to ensure the safety of all Indian prisoners in its custody. “We request the Pakistan government once again to release and repatriate all Indian prisoners immediately,” he said.
The most recent lists of civilian prisoners and fishermen exchanged by the two countries in July showed that there were 49 Indian civilian prisoners and 633 fishermen in Pakistan’s custody, while 309 Pakistani civilian prisoners and 95 fishermen were in Indian jails.
At that time, India asked Pakistan to expedite the release and repatriation of 536 fishermen and three civilian prisoners who had completed their sentences.