In a sharp rebuttal to Pakistan Army Chief General Asim Munir’s remarks calling Kashmir Pakistan’s “jugular vein”, India asserted that the only link between Kashmir and Pakistan is Islamabad’s illegal occupation of part of the region that must be vacated.

“How can anything foreign be in a jugular vein? This is a union territory of India. Its only relationship with Pakistan is the vacation of illegally occupied territories by that country,” Ministry of External affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a briefing on Thursday.

General Munir, while addressing a gathering of overseas Pakistanis, reiterated Pakistan’s longstanding rhetoric on Kashmir and defended the controversial two-nation theory that led to the Partition in 1947. “Our stance is absolutely clear, it was our jugular vein, it will be our jugular vein, we will not forget it. We will not leave our Kashmiri brothers in their heroic struggle,” Munir said.

He also claimed that Pakistanis are bound by a “superior ideology and culture” and urged the diaspora to pass down the story of Pakistan’s creation, rooted in the belief that Muslims and Hindus were fundamentally different in “religion, customs, traditions, and ambitions”.

“Our forefathers have sacrificed immensely, and we have sacrificed a lot for the creation of this country, and we know how to defend it,” Munir said.

During the weekly briefing,  Jaiswal also took a jibe at Islamabad over the extradition of 26/11 Mumbai attacks accused Tahawwur Rana to India. “Pakistan may try very hard, but its reputation as the epicentre of global terrorism will not diminish. The extradition of Rana serves as a reminder to Pakistan that it needs to bring to justice other perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, whom it continues to shield,” Jaiswal said.

Rana, 64, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, was brought to India on April 10 after the US cleared all hurdles for his extradition. He is now in the custody of Indian investigative agencies.