India to OIC: You have no locus standi to comment on J&K

In a sharp retort to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, India has said the body has no ‘locus standi’ to comment on India’s internal affairs, including on Jammu & Kashmir, while reminding OIC of its own ‘repeated failure’ to acknowledge real and documented threat of terrorism emanating from Pakistan.

The Ministry of External Affairs on Monday night responded to a declaration made by OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers at a meeting at Istanbul, Turkiye, on Sunday.

The MEA said, “The OIC has no locus standi to comment on India’s internal affairs, including Jammu & Kashmir, which is an integral and sovereign part of India — a fact enshrined in the Indian Constitution and irreversibly settled.”

India categorically rejected the unwarranted and factually incorrect references to India at the OIC’s Council of Foreign Ministers’ meeting, the statement said. It reminded OIC of “repeated failure to acknowledge the real and documented threat of terrorism emanating from Pakistan, most recently evidenced in the heinous Pahalgam attack”.

“It reflects a willful disregard for facts and the global consensus on the fight against terrorism,” the Indian statement said.

New Delhi asked the OIC to “reflect deeply on the perils of allowing Pakistan’s propaganda to hijack and politicise (OIC ) agenda. It can only undermine the OIC’s credibility and relevance”.

OIC, a 57-country body, during its foreign council meeting in a resolution at Istanbul, not only expressed solidarity with Pakistan, it called India’s military strike  as ‘unjustified’. The resolution said, “Express solidarity with Pakistan, express our deep concern over the recent military escalation in the South Asia region, including the unjustified strikes carried out on multiple locations in Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir”.

The OIC called for “strict adherence to bilateral agreements, including Indus Waters Treaty”. It stressed on the importance of a broad-based dialogue for peaceful settlement of all outstanding disputes between Pakistan and India.

In turn, India has accused the OIC statement of being driven by Pakistan, which has turned terrorism into statecraft, reflecting the continued misuse of the OIC platform for narrow political ends.

The comments made by Pakistan at the OIC meeting are nothing more than a desperate attempt to deflect international attention from its own appalling record of state-sponsored terrorism, minority persecution and sectarian violence, apart from failure of governance.

India also outrightly rejected Pakistan’s baseless allegation of "unprovoked and unjustified military aggression”.

India’s Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack was a precise and legitimate act of self-defence against terrorist camps operating from Pakistani territory.

It is absurd for Pakistan to speak of targeting only Indian military installations when its retaliatory attempts not only failed but recklessly endangered civilian lives and property and ended up causing several deaths and injuries among the civilian population.

It is also ironic that Pakistan, a country with an abysmal human rights record and a history of sheltering, breeding and empowering terrorists, should lecture others on counter-terrorism and human rights, the Indian statement said.