UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres discussed the festering Kashmir imbroglio with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a meeting in France, reaffirming the world body’s position which expresses concern and urges restraint in the disputed territory.
The meeting between the UN Chief and India’s ultranationalist leader took place on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit in the French city of Biarritz, more than three weeks after New Delhi’s August 5 suspension of autonomous status for the UN-recognized disputed territory.
The people in Kashmir remain confined to their homes amid a communication blockade, which has made life in the heavily militarized area miserable for local residents, who now fear that India will allow settlement of Hindus to change the Muslim majority demographics of the territory.
“The issue of Kashmir did come up. For the Secretary-General’s part, he reiterated the message that he has been saying publicly, and that is basically a need for all parties to avoid any sort of escalation,” Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Guterres reiterated UN’s position along the lines of his August 8 statement which he made in the wake of India’s annexation of occupied Kashmir, according to the spokesman.
Pakistan has called the Indian move a “fascist” decision and a “strategic blunder.”
Prime Minister Imran Khan addressed the Pakistani nation, saying India has played its last card, and will now repent at its strategic blunder.
Nuclear-armed South Asian foes Pakistan and India partly control Kashmir but the Indian-administered Kashmir has long been a restive area, where indigenous movement for freedom has faced draconian Indian clampdown and brutal use of force, as exposed by a series of first hand accounts in the mainstream American media.
Reacting to the dangerous situation in Kashmir, the Secretary General in an August 8 statement said he had been following the situation in Jammu and Kashmir “with concern”, making an appeal for “maximum restraint”.
Picture taken by Views and News of a poster exhibition on Kashmir at Pakistan Embassy in Washington D.C.
“The position of the United Nations on this region is governed by the Charter…and applicable Security Council resolutions”, said the statement.
“The Secretary-General also recalls the 1972 Agreement on bilateral relations between India and Pakistan also known as the Simla Agreement, which states that the final status of Jammu and Kashmir is to be settled by peaceful means, in accordance with the UN Charter.”
As per its mandate, the UN has an institutional presence in the disputed state, with the areas under separate administration, divided by the Line of Control. The UN Military Observer Group in Indian and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) observes and reports on any ceasefire violations on both sides.
The Jammu and Kashmir dispute, which has often been called an unfinished agenda of 1947 independence of the Indian subcontinent from the British rule, remains on the agenda of the UN Security Council for seven decades.
The apex diplomatic forum has passed 11 resolutions on Kashmir dispute and members also discussed the spiraling Kashmir crisis this month in response to Pakistan’s request and China’s urging.
Pakistan and India have engaged in several conflicts and wars in the region, where India’s use of pellet guns and other aggressive crackdown without impunity including arrest of thousands of people with no recourse to law, has received worldwide attention.
nice decision anyway.
The world is most grateful for your hard work to bring a harmonious living in the world