Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad joins China and Turkey in rebuking India for its abrogation of Article 370. Malaysia has been critical of the issue and suggested diplomatic channels be open to resolving the issue. Jammu and Kashmir has been a disputed territory between India and Pakistan.
India had abrogated Article 370 and removed the special status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir on August 2019. This has created a lot of furore in the global political mainframe. India has said that it is an internal issue while Pakistan has claimed that it would undermine the rights of Kashmiris.
During his address to the United Nations General Assembly, the Malaysian prime minister had said that India’s move undermines the UN resolutions on the matter of Kashmir. According to a report in The Hindu, Mohamed had suggested his Indian counterpart to resolve the dispute through negotiations and not ‘occupation’.
The 94-year-old prime minister who had met the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Vladivostok had been informed about the move and they had discussed the logic behind the decision of the Indian government.
India had also raised the issue of controversial religious preacher Zakir Naik and his extradition to India. Naik has been charged by the National Investigation Agency for money laundering and his speech inciting extremism. He had evaded the authorities and has been in Malaysia since 2016.
(Inputs from Agencies)