Washington: In an unusual move, a US state legislature has passed a resolution on Kashmir which India feels could have been done under the influence of anti-India and pro-Pak elements.

The resolution passed by New Hampshire legislature recently called for "increased diplomacy to achieve a just, peaceful and rapid resolution of the conflict between India and Pakistan, relative to the state of Jammu and Kashmir."

Voicing concern over the development, India's Ambassador to the US Lalit Mansingh, in a letter to the leaders of the legislature, said that Jammu and Kashmir continued to face cross-border infiltration of terrorists from Pakistan which is the world's "most notorious breeding ground for terrorism".

Despite foreign policy being the prerogative of the US President, the concurrent resolution 16 was passed by active influence of anti-India and pro-Pak elements with accompanying speeches reflecting Pakistani propaganda.

Mansingh said cross-border terrorism is continuing in Kashmir despite Islamabad's pledges to US to stop it.

"Pakistan's territorial claims on India are both irredentist and illegitimate.... Over the last 55 years, it has sought to expand those territorial ambitions through the use of force," Mansingh said.

"Having initiated and lost three wars with India, Pakistan, now relies on the use of terrorism to achieve its political objectives," he said.

Mansingh said Pakistan's "nurturing of the al-Qaida and the Taleban ...and acts of terrorism against India are products of the same jihadi culture that the Pakistan military has assiduously fostered over the years."

PTI