India and Pakistan clashed yet again over the Kashmir issue during the ongoing UN General Assembly session.
Speaking in the General Assembly's Decolonisation Committee, Congress MP Charan Das Mahant asserted that Kashmir was an integral part of India, and that its people have regularly expressed their will in free and fair elections.
Pakistani delegate Tahir Andarabi who spoke later said, no electoral exercise in Jammu and Kashmir can substitute a "free and impartial plebiscite" mandated by Security Council resolutions.
Andarabi said that Jammu and Kashmir is not an integral part of India.
Last week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon underlined that the UN would only "offer its good offices" in Kashmir when "both parties" wanted the world body to step in.
"As far as this role of good offices is concerned, the United Nations normally takes that initiative when requested by both parties concerned," Ban told journalists on Wednesday.
"India and Pakistan, they are neighbouring countries, important nations in that region -- peace and security would have important implications," he said.
