UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan on Tuesday firmly rejected an Indian claim to Kashmir as an “integral part” of India, saying it was an internationally-recognised disputed territory.Diyar Khan, a minister at the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations, told the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee meeting that legal and factual background of Jammu & Kashmir dispute is quite clear and Indian efforts to mislead or confuse the international community would not succeed.As representatives of the two countries sparred over the decades-old issue at the United Nations in the committee meeting dealing with social, humanitarian and cultural questions, Khan maintained that the disputed nature of state was well established by several UN Security Council resolutions that call for a settlement of this problem through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations.

Diyar Khan was reacting to a statement by Indian delegate Rattan Lal Kataria, who in his speech maintained that Kashmir was its “integral part” and that Pakistan was in illegal occupation of a part of that “Indian state”.

He also claimed that people in India-held Kashmir had regularly participated in “free, fair and open elections.” Kataria, a member of Indian parliament.