Amid POK unrest, India slams Pakistan's 'exploitative policies'

NEW DELHI: Amid raging protests in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, India hit out at Pakistan for its "exploitative policies" denying the local people rights over their own resources.
India believes that the protests are a natural consequence of Pakistan's continued policy of systemic plundering of resources from these territories which remain under its forcible and illegal occupation, said foreign ministry at a media briefing."Such exploitative policies deny the local people rights over their own resources and the benefits thereof," said spokesman Randhir Jaiswal while reiterating that Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are and shall always remain integral parts of India.
Foreign minister S Jaishankar had said earlier this week there's a ferment happening in POK. "You can see it on social media or television. The analysis of it is very complex but definitely, I have no doubt in my own mind that someone living in POK is comparing their situation with someone actually living in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that how is it that people today are actually progressing there," Jaishankar had said.
Dawn newspaper earlier reported that all businesses, including banks, remained closed, and traffic and vendors were off the roads in three districts of Muzaffarabad in POK. A police officer was killed and more than 100 people, mostly policemen, injured in violent clashes between security forces and protesters agitating againsthigh prices of wheat flour and electricity in POK, according to local media reports.