Pakistan expels Indian ambassador as Kashmir dispute escalates

Friday, 9 August 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

A woman, who was protesting against the scrapping of special constitutional status for Kashmir, argues with people who were celebrating the removal of the special status, during a gathering in New Delhi, India - Reuters

Islamabad/Srinagar, India (Reuters): Pakistan said on Wednesday it would expel India’s ambassador and suspend bilateral trade with its arch-rival after New Delhi stripped its portion of the contested Kashmir region of special status.

Neighbours China and Pakistan, which both claim parts of Kashmir, have voiced fierce opposition to India’s removal of a constitutional provision that had allowed the country’s only Muslim-majority state to make its own laws.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have twice waged war over Kashmir and in February engaged in an aerial clash. India, which has been battling insurgents there for 30 years, said the special status had hindered Kashmir’s development and it wanted to fully integrate the region with the rest of the country.

Moin-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s newly appointed ambassador to India, has yet to take up his post but will now not move to New Delhi, while Indian Ambassador Ajay Bisaria will be expelled, Islamabad said in a statement on Wednesday.

“It is very obvious that our ambassador wouldn’t be in Delhi, and obviously the man who is here will also leave,” Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a telephone interview with Pakistani TV channel ARY News.

A spokesman for India’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Pakistan’s move.