The United Nations has made an urgent appeal for calm and restraint in South Asia following Indian warplanes entered Pakistani territory in what New Delhi says was a strike against a hideout of Jaish e Mohammad that it blames for February 14 Pulwama attack.
“The Secretary-General (Antonio Guterres) is closely following the situation,” UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
“He (UN chief) reiterates his urgent appeal to both the Governments of India and Pakistan to exercise maximum restraint to ensure that the situation does not further deteriorate,” the spokesman added.
Pakistan has rejected the Indian claim and said when confronted the Indian jets released their payload on a hill in Balakot in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa close to the Pakistani-administered Kashmir.
Tensions have spiraled since the attack and now the situation is deemed as precarious with Islamabad vowing to retaliate at a time and place of its choosing.
Meanwhile, the Organization of Islamic countries (OIC has condemned the Indian incursion into Pakistani territory.
At the UN Headquarters in New York, Pakistan’s Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi delivered Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s letter addressed to the UN Secretary-General at his office.
Guterres is due to return to New York from Geneva Tuesday evening.
Dr. Lodhi is circulating to the UN member states OIC’s condemnation of airspace violations along the Line of Control in Kashmir by Indian war planes.
