Male (Maldives) | Jagran News Desk: India and Pakistan on Sunday had a heated exchange at the South Asian Speakers' Summit in the Maldives after the latter tried to raise the issue of abrogation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan's Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Qasim Suri tried to raise the Kashmir issue during the discussion on Sustainable Development Goals.

However, India immediately raised a point of order and a strong reply was given to Pakistan by Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harviansh.

Also Read | India to get consular access to Kulbhushan Jadhav today, says Pakistan

“We strongly object to the raising of internal matter of India in this forum. We also reject to the politicisation of this forum by raising the issues which are extraneous to the theme of this summit,” Harivansh said.

“There is a need for Pakistan to end cross-border terrorism and all kinds of state support to the same in the interest of regional peace and stability. Terrorism is the biggest threat to the entire humanity today. Therefore, unanimously we should not allow in this august gathering any kind of circulated statement to become a part of the proceedings,” he added.

Pakistan objected to Harviansh’s statements and said sustainable development goals cannont be achieved without human rights.

To this Harviansh said, “What moral rights this country has to raise issues related to human rights? The world knows how they committed genocide in a part of their own country and that country is now separate entity called Bangladesh.”

Also Read | Pakistan ready for 'conditional dialogue' with India, says Shah Mahmood Qureshi

“Since they have raised human rights issue of Kashmir, I would like to state facts that Pakistan has occupied our part of Kashmir known as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. This Pakistan-occupied Kashmir comprises two areas, the so-called Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) and Gilgit Baltistan (GB) which Pakistan has illegally occupied through armed action in 1947,” he added.

Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after India abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories.

Pakistan has been trying to raise the issue at various international fora, but India has maintained that it is an internal matter.

(With PTI inputs)