The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday said that the matter of bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) is an internal matter of India and other countries like China should not comment on it, just like India refrains from commenting on internal issues of other countries.

“China is well aware of India’s consistent and clear position on this issue," MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said on Thursday, "The matter of reorganization of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh is entirely an internal affair of India. We do not expect other countries, including China, to comment on the matters which are internal to India, just as India refrains from commenting on internal issues of other countries.”

“China continues to be in occupation of a large tract of area in the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. It has also illegally acquired Indian territories from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) under the so-called China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement of 1963,” he added.

China had earlier said that New Delhi's move to "include" some of "China's territory" into its own jurisdiction "challenged" Beijing's sovereignty. Earlier, too, China had registered its objections against Centre's decision to abrogate Article 370 and the formation of Ladakh as Union Territory, saying that some parts of Ladakh fall under China.

"The Indian government officially announced the establishment of so-called Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh Union Territories which included some of China's territory into its administrative jurisdiction," China's Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang had said.

"China deplores and firmly opposes that. India unilaterally changed its domestic laws and administrative division challenging China's sovereignty," he said replying to a question. "This is unlawful and void and this is not effective in any way and will not change the fact that the area is under Chinese actual control," he added.

Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated on October 31 (Thursday) into two union territories - Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh - as per Centre's announcement on August 5 abrogating Article 350, which granted special status to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The region came to be operational as two different Union Territories from October 31, 2019.

(With Zee Media Newsroom inputs)