The president and prime minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir rejected on Monday the Indian government's move to scrap the special status of the Indian-administered side.
"India is an occupier and has been brutalizing the people of Kashmir for the last 72 years," said Sardar Masood Khan, president of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.
The repeal of constitutional articles, protecting the special status of Kashmir, will not affect the freedom struggle of the Kashmiri people, he added in his statement.
Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider accused New Delhi of destabilizing peace in the region.
"India wants to destabilize regional peace and suppress the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people for freedom," Haider told reporters in Islamabad, local broadcaster Geo News reported.
India on Monday scrapped the special status granted to the country’s only Muslim-majority state which allowed it autonomy in exchange of joining the Indian union after independence in 1947.
The provision allowed Jammu and Kashmir to enact its own laws and disallowed outsiders to settle and own land in the territory.
The Himalayan region is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full.
Since they were partitioned, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.
Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.
According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.
