New Delhi: India briefed envoys of the P5 countries — the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council — over the abrogation of Article 370.
Sources said the briefing was only to explain the process of Parliament by which the article that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir was scrapped.
The sources said that even as it was an internal matter of the country, envoys of many nations, including P5 countries — US, UK, France, Russia and China — were briefed “in light of the interest expressed by the diplomatic community in Delhi”.
The envoys were briefed on Article 370 and administrative reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir that were introduced in Parliament on Monday.
They were told that the proposals were “aimed at providing good governance, promoting social justice and ensuring economic development in Jammu and Kashmir.”
Soon after the government made it clear earlier in the day (at 11am) in the Rajya Sabha that not only Article 370 would go, but the state of J&K would be bifurcated into two Union territories, former chief minister and once-BJP ally Mehbooba Mufti wrote on Twitter, "Today the people of Jammu & Kashmir who reposed their faith in institutions of India like parliament & Supreme Court feel defeated & betrayed. By dismembering the state & fraudulently taking away what is rightfully & legally ours, they have further complicated the Kashmir dispute."
By afternoon, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said India had resurrected the Kashmir problem with its thinking. Later, Pakistan released a statement, saying, “No unilateral step by the Government of India can change this disputed status, as enshrined in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions.”
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