UK Foreign Secy Faces Flak For Saying ‘India-Administered Kashmir’

Jeremy Hunt took to Twitter to express solidarity after 40 CRPF jawans were killed in the Pulwama terror attack.

File image of British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

(Photo: AP)

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt received flak on social media for calling Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama ‘India-administered Kashmir’ in his tweet offering condolences after the terror attack in the state.

Hunt took to Twitter to express solidarity with India after at least 40 CRPF personnel were killed in a suicide attack in Pulwama on Thursday, 14 February. The attack was claimed by Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad.

Hunt wrote on Thursday, "Shocked by today’s senseless and brutal act of terror in India-administered Kashmir.”

Social media users immediately denounced Hunt for using the term ‘India-administered Kashmir.’ Many said that Kashmir is an integral part of India and that the British foreign secretary needs to “get his facts right.”

Indian-origin Labour Party MP Virendra Sharma had earlier called on the UK government to reconsider the reference to “India-administered Kashmir.”

“I was pleased to see the British Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, has offered his sincere condolences to the victims’ families, and stated that ‘we stand with India’, but I am concerned that he used the phrase “India-administered Kashmir',” he said, PTI reported on Friday, 15 February.

Sharma also said he has written to the foreign secretary to reiterate that Kashmir is an integral part of the Indian State and has been since it formally acceded in 1947.

(With inputs from PTI)