June 24, 2025
NEW DELHI – India on Monday rejected the “unwarranted and factually incorrect” references to India at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) council of foreign ministers’ meeting, asking it to stay away from its internal matters.
“These statements, driven by Pakistan, which has turned terrorism into statecraft, reflect the continued misuse of the OIC platform for narrow political ends,” the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said in an official communique issued here.
On Sunday, the OIC, an organisation of 57 Islamic countries, in a meeting held in Istanbul, Turkey, had called upon India and Pakistan to strictly follow bilateral agreements, including the Indus Waters Treaty.
Reacting to it sharply, the MEA said OIC’s repeated failure to acknowledge the real and documented threat of terrorism emanating from Pakistan, most recently evidenced in the heinous Pahalgam attack, reflects a wilful disregard for facts and the global consensus on the fight against terrorism.
It said the OIC has no locus standi to comment on India’s internal affairs, including Jammu and Kashmir, which is an integral and sovereign part of India — a fact enshrined in the Indian Constitution and irreversibly settled.
Advising the OIC to reflect deeply on the perils of allowing Pakistan’s propaganda to hijack and politicize its agenda, the MEA said any other course can only undermine the OIC’s credibility and relevance. “The comments made by Pakistan at the OIC meeting are nothing more than a desperate attempt to deflect international attention from its own appalling record of state-sponsored terrorism, minority persecution and sectarian violence, apart from failure of governance,” it added.
India, it said, also outrightly rejects Pakistan’s baseless allegation of “unprovoked and unjustified military aggression.”
“India’s Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack was a precise and legitimate act of self-defence against terrorist camps operating from Pakistani territory,” it said, adding that it’s absurd for Pakistan to speak of targeting only Indian military installations when its retaliatory attempts not only failed but recklessly endangered civilian lives and property and ended up causing several deaths and injuries among the civilian population.
“It is also ironic that Pakistan, a country with an abysmal human rights record and a history of sheltering, breeding and empowering terrorists, should lecture others on counter-terrorism and human rights,” the MEA observed.