India registers ‘strong protest’ against visit by British envoy to PoK, calls it “infringement of sovereignty”

Terming the visit by the British High Commissioner in Islamabad, Jane Marriott, to Kashmir under Pakistan as “highly objectionable”, India has registered a ‘strong protest’ with the British High Commissioner in India. This comes after British envoy Jane Marriott visited Mirpur city in the PoK region along with an official of the UK Foreign Office.

“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,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement on Saturday. “Such infringement of India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is unacceptable,” it added.

Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra has lodged a strong protest with the British High Commissioner in India on this ‘infringement’. The Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh “have been and shall always remain an integral part of India,” MEA added.

In October last year, the US envoy to Pakistan, Donald Blome, visited the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir region. New Delhi conveyed to Washington its ‘strong objection’ to the visit and urged the international community to respect its “sovereignty and territorial integrity”.