India rejects 'untenable comments' by Nawaz Sharif on Jammu and Kashmir in UN

India on Saturday strongly rejected the "untenable comments" made by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Jammu and Kashmir in the UNGA, asserting that the people of the state have peacefully chosen their destiny in accordance with universally accepted democratic principles.

Exercising its Right of Reply on the floor of the General Assembly to the comments made by Sharif, India said that the Pakistan Prime Minister made "unwarranted references" in his address to the UN session earlier yesterday.

"I would like to bring to the notice of this august House that the people of Jammu and Kashmir have peacefully chosen their destiny in accordance with the universally accepted democratic principles and practices and they continue to do so. We, therefore, reject in their entirety the untenable comments of the distinguished delegate of Pakistan," Abhishek Singh, First Secretary in the Indian mission to the UN said in the General Assembly.

Again raising the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in the UN, Sharif had said that a "veil" cannot be drawn on the issue of Kashmir. Blaming India for the cancellation of the Foreign Secretary level talks between the two countries in August, Sharif had said it was "another missed opportunity" to settle disputes and build economic and trade relations.