NEW DELHI, Nov 19: The Indian external affairs ministry issued on Friday a demarche to Iran over supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s ‘adverse’ remarks on the Jammu and Kashmir issue.

Yash Sinha, Joint Secretary (Iran), summoned the charge de affaires of the Iranian embassy and lodged a protest.

In a message to Haj pilgrims, Ayatollah Khamenei had asked Muslims across the world to back the pro-liberation campaigns in Kashmir, equating the region with Afghanistan and Iraq. “Today the major duty of the elite of the Ummah is to provide help to the Palestinian nation, to sympathise and provide assistance to the nations of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and Kashmir, to engage in struggle and resistance against the aggressions of the US and the Zionist regime.”—Agencies