ISLAMABAD - Pakistan said on Wednesday it will "downgrade" diplomatic relations and suspend bilateral trade with arch-rival India after New Delhi stripped its portion of the contested Kashmir region of special status.

Neighbours China and Pakistan, which both claim parts of the region, have voiced fierce opposition to India's move dropping a constitutional provision that had allowed the country's only Muslim-majority state to make its own laws.

A spokesman for India's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Reuters