Pakistan on Thursday rejected protests by India against a bus service to China, passing though PoK under the ambitious CPEC project, even as Beijing defended the proposed service saying its cooperation with Islamabad has nothing to do with the Kashmir dispute and will not change its principled stance on the issue.
According to reports, the new bus service will be launched between Lahore in Pakistan and Kashgar in China via Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on November 3.
"We reject the Indian Ministry of External Affairs' (MEA) purported protest and statement regarding bus service through China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)," Pakistan's Foreign Office (FO) said.
India on Wednesday said it had lodged strong protests with China and Pakistan over a proposed bus service between the two countries through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).
MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said in New Delhi that the bus service will be a violation of India's sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Kumar said it has been India's consistent and well-known position that the "so-called China-Pakistan 'Boundary Agreement' of 1963 is illegal and invalid, and has never been recognised by the Government of India."