"J&K Integral Part Of India": Indian Diplomat Flags Wrong Map At Dhaka Event

An Indian diplomat objected to the depiction of an incorrect map of Jammu and Kashmir during a seminar in Bangladesh, reiterating that the union territory is an "integral and inalienable" part of India.

Pooja Kumari Jha, an official at the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, raised the objection during a presentation by former Bangladesh High Commissioner to India Ahmed Tariq Karim at a seminar -- "Rebuilding Trust, Renewing Regional Integration: Pathways for Revitalising SAARC" -- at the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) on Monday.

As Karim, who served as Bangladesh's High Commissioner to India from 2009 to 2014, was speaking, Jha, who was in the audience, pointed out that the map shown in his presentation was incorrect.

"The map of India depicted is incorrect. Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India," she said.

India's Second Secretary at the Indian High Commission in Dhaka, Puja Jha, raised an immediate objection after a map shown during a foreign policy seminar in Bangladesh depicted Jammu & Kashmir as part of Pakistan.

She stated that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral and inalienable… pic.twitter.com/a4b2IV8ZhA

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Karim said the map was "for representational purposes only" and "doesn't project actual boundaries".

The Indian official acknowledged his clarification but reiterated India's stand on Jammu and Kashmir.

"I understand, Sir, but Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India, and it is misrepresented here. So I just wanted to point out," she said.

Karim then asked whether she was from India, following which she said she is the second secretary at the Indian High Commission in Dhaka.

"The point is noted," he responded.

Continuing with his presentation, Karim said that most South Asian states emerge from colonial rule with legal sovereignty, but also with "congested identities, uneven institutions, and deep anxieties about territorial integrity".

"Colonialism did not merely draw borders. It reorganised political imagination. It encouraged elites to think of security primarily in territorial terms and to view neighbouring states as lesser partners and more as potential threats," he said.

He said that South Asia before colonial consolidation was not a set of "sealed territorial containers".

"It was a layered region of empires, princely states, trading rules, pilgrimage networks, linguistic continuance, renovations, and ecological zones. Communities moved, traded, worshipped, married, and migrated across spaces that later became borders," he said.

"It divided families, markets, rivers, railways, ports, memories, and identities. It turned shared spaces into contested territories, and everyday mobility into a matter of passports, visas, suspicion, and security clearances. One may think of partition as a division of a family house," he added.

Bangladesh's State Minister for Foreign Affairs Shama Obaed attended the event as the chief guest.