LS irked by US claim that J&K is disputed territory

Several Lok Sabha members expressed concern on Monday over a US official's statement that Jammu and Kashmir was ''disputed territory'' and not an integral part of India. They demanded that the government unequivocally condemn the statement while making its own position clear to the US.

Raising the issue at Zero Hour, Mangat Ram Sharma, (Congress), said it was shocking that the US had describing J&K as disputed territory. This was bound to encourage terrorist activity in the state as well as encourage Pakistan to further interfere in Jammu and Kashmir's affairs, he said.

Sharma was referring to a newspaper report in which George Pickart, a senior advisor to the US state department's South Asia bureau, had said that ''the USA believes that Jammu and Kashmir is disputed territory and is an issue to be resolved between India and Pakistan, taking the desires of the Kashmiri people into account.''

Several Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress MPs said such ''unsavoury'' statements made by US off and on was, in fact, aimed at keeping the Kashmir issue unsettled and to internationalise the matter. India should not remain complacent on this front, they said.

Pramod Mahajan (BJP) referred to last week's statement by President Bill Clinton in which he said the US should strive to keep her ''heavy presence'' in South Asia. Mahajan said the government should ask the US what 'heavy presence' in South Asia meant and whether it was aimed at keeping Kashmir and other issues on the boil.

Nirmal Chatterjee (Communist Party of India-Marxist) felt some forces in the US were trying to expand their influence all over the world. The Cold War had ended, but it had been replaced by a ''cold peace,'' the Marxist MP said, demanding that the prime minister make a categorical statement on the matter.