China's statement on PoK missing from govt website

BEIJING: Chinese foreign ministry's controversial statement describing Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir as "northern part of Pakistan" is missing in its web site, which provides transcript of all other questions and answers at the press briefing on Thursday.

This is seen in Indian diplomatic circles as an "important signal" suggesting that New Delhi should not read too much into the statement. External affairs minister S M Krishna has already voiced concern over the statement because it amounts to neglecting India's claims over all of Kashmir.

"The story that China has deployed its military in northern part of Pakistan is totally groundless and out of ulterior purpose," Jiang Yu, Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman said during Thursday briefing at the ministry. This part of the press conference details does not figure in the website, which usually records details of the briefings.

The web site recorded Jiang's answer to another question about the role played by the Chinese People's Liberation Army, the Red Cross Society of China, local governments and Chinese enterprises towards flood relief in Pakistan.

"An international relief team sent by the Chinese government has arrived in the hardest-hit southern part of Pakistan and set up a mobile hospital which is in operation now," she said.

One day later, Chinese vice minister for foreign affairs Zhang Zhijun acknowledged to the Indian ambassador S Jaishankar that there was indeed some Chinese presence in the Gilgit-Baltistan area of PoK, but this was purely for flood relief and humanitarian reasons, embassy sources said.

Since the ministry earlier said that the southern part of Pakistan was hardest-hit, the motivation behind sending forces into the disputed Gilgit-Baltistan in the northern areas remains a mystery.