Pakistan picked a Kashmiri diplomat as its new US ambassador. Now the Indian lobby is after him
The India-Pakistan struggle over disputed Kashmir is resonating in Washington’s diplomatic circles after Islamabad picked a staunch Kashmiri as its ambassador to the United States.
“Masood is a distinguished diplomat. He has served in the US before. I don’t see any reason for them to disqualify him,” said Shamshad Ahmad Khan, Pakistan’s former foreign secretary. “The Biden administration has a lot on its policy plate, especially the pandemic, and it’s been in office for a relatively brief period. So this could easily be an issue of bandwidth and bureaucracy,” said Michael Kugelman, a Washington-based expert on South Asia. Masood has been a vocal critic of India’s treatment of Kashmiris. In 2019, New Delhi made controversial constitutional changes to take away the nominal autonomy of Kashmir, the only Muslim-majority region in India.
However, Masood’s stance on Kashmir and India is not unusual for Pakistani diplomats and government officials. “It’s the combination of his previous affiliation and his ideological and political views on Kashmir that have rankled India.”
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