NEW DELHI, February 25 (IslamOnline.net) - The Indo-Pak rivalry spilled over at the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Kuala Lumpur as Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee took exception to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s remarks on Jammu and Kashmir.

Such spats have been a recurrent affair since 1947 when Pakistan came into existence following partition of India into an Islamic Pakistan and a secular India.

Since then the two countries have gone to war thrice — in 1947, 1965, and 1971 — twice over Kashmir itself.

Pakistan never fails to bring up Kashmir at every forum, even though India as a routine snubs it claiming “Kashmir is an integral part of India.”

Musharraf had in his address to the summit, asked NAM to support Kashmiris and Palestinians in their struggle.

“NAM must remain a symbol of hope for the peoples who, even today, struggle to realize their inalienable right to self-determination,” he said.

Musharraf clubbed Kashmir with Palestine. “Two cases stand out — those of oppressed people of Kashmir and Palestine,” he said, provoking Vajpayee to retaliate.

“He talks of the oppressed people of Kashmir. These same people very recently cast their ballots in an election universally recognized as free and fair.

“They defied the bullets of terrorists, aided and abetted by Pakistan,” an angry Vajpayee charged, in a digression from his prepared speech on Monday, February 24.

“Those very terrorists assassinated candidates and political activists and killed women and children because they refused to provide them food and shelter,” he alleged.

“Those terrorists continue to perpetrate violence against innocent civilians everyday. Yet General Musharraf talks of an international humanitarian order,” added Vajpayee.

India also objected to the Kashmir reference saying bilateral issues were not to be raised at the forum.

“As a co-founder of NAM we are shocked at their efforts to trivialize this forum for which they never had much respect anyway,” India’s External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said.

Vajpayee’s original speech did not mention Pakistan, but his principal secretary Brajesh Mishra and Sinha hastily drafted an appendix to his presentation.

The Pakistanis demanded the right to reply to Vajpayee’s remarks but were denied the opportunity by Malaysia, which currently chairs the organization.

Later, Pakistan was allowed to reply in writing.