India on Wednesday hit back at Pakistan over its annual observance of the so-called “Youm-e-Istehsal”, dismissing it as “malicious propaganda” and asserting that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are an integral and inalienable part of the country.The strong response came after Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister issued remarks on the seventh anniversary of India’s August 5, 2019, decision to abrogate Article 370 and reorganise the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.Rejecting Islamabad’s criticism, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the constitutional changes were an internal matter of India and had brought “unprecedented socio-economic development, good governance and democratic empowerment” to the people of the region.”Pakistan has no locus standi to comment on matters that are strictly internal to India,” he said, reiterating that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh “are, have always been, and shall forever remain” an integral and inalienable part of India.The latest exchange comes a day after New Delhi accused Pakistan of using local body elections in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK) to deflect attention from what it described as a violent crackdown on civilian protests. India had alleged that at least 90 civilians had been killed over the past two months during the unrest.Stepping up its criticism on Wednesday, the MEA accused Pakistan of trying to divert international attention from its own human rights record and its continued support for terrorism.Jaiswal alleged that Pakistani security forces had responded to peaceful civil rights protests in PoJK with lethal force, targeted killings and sweeping restrictions, saying the developments exposed what he called the “profound hypocrisy” of the Pakistani establishment.India also renewed its call for Pakistan to take “credible, verifiable and irreversible” action against terror networks operating from its soil and to vacate Indian territories under its “illegal and forcible occupation”.