{"id":226813,"date":"2019-08-14T02:23:23","date_gmt":"2019-08-14T06:23:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=226813"},"modified":"2019-08-14T02:23:23","modified_gmt":"2019-08-14T06:23:23","slug":"pakistan-seeks-urgent-un-meeting-on-india-action-in-kashmir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/08\/14\/pakistan-seeks-urgent-un-meeting-on-india-action-in-kashmir\/","title":{"rendered":"Pakistan seeks urgent UN meeting on India action in Kashmir"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi denounced \u201crecent aggressive actions\u201d by India’s Hindu nationalist-led government, saying they \u201cwilfully undermine the internationally recognized disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir.\u201d (File Photo<\/a>: Shah Mahmood Qureshi\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pakistan called Tuesday for an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council, saying India’s decision to strip its part of disputed Kashmir of autonomy poses \u201can imminent threat\u201d to international peace and could lead to ethnic cleansing and genocide in the Muslim-majority region.<\/p>\n

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi denounced \u201crecent aggressive actions\u201d by India’s Hindu nationalist-led government, saying they \u201cwilfully undermine the internationally recognized disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quereshi accused India in a letter to the council obtained by The Associated Press of implementing a \u201cracist ideology\u201d aimed at turning its part of Kashmir from a Muslim-majority into a Hindu-majority territory. \u201cThe Indian actions on Aug. 5, 2019 have opened the way for realization of this fascist policy objective,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Quereshi warned that any such attempt \u201cwill evoke strong Kashmiri resistance\u201d and \u201cthe anticipated massive repression by India’s occupation forces will lead to ethnic cleansing and genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the Security Council has \u201cthe obligation to prevent the recurrence of another Srebrenica and Rwanda,\u201d referring to the genocides in Srebrenica, Bosnia, in 1995 and in Rwanda in 1994.<\/p>\n

Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz, whose country holds the council’s rotating presidency this month, said members would discuss the letter.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoland believes that this can only be resolved by peaceful means and … we are in favour of dialogue between Pakistan and India to sort out the differences,\u201d he said. \u201cStrained relations between India and Pakistan negatively affect the whole\u00a0South Asia\u00a0region and may lead to serious political, security and economic consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n

India and Pakistan, which both now have nuclear weapons, claim all of Kashmir and have fought several wars over the divided region.<\/p>\n

With the end of British colonial rule in 1947, the Indian subcontinent was divided into predominantly Hindu India and mainly Muslim Pakistan. The countries fought their first war over control of Kashmir, which had been a Muslim-majority kingdom ruled by a Hindu maharaja. The war ended in 1948 with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that left Kashmir divided, with the promise of a U.N.-sponsored referendum on its \u201cfinal disposition\u201d that has never been held.<\/p>\n

India accuses Pakistan of arming and training insurgents fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. Pakistan denies the charge and says it offers only diplomatic and moral support to the rebels.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 5, India’s government announced it was revoking Kashmir’s special constitutional status and downgrading its statehood to a territory, which limits its autonomy and decision-making power and eliminates its right to its own constitution.<\/p>\n

India has imposed a near-constant curfew and a communications blackout as it tries to stave off a violent reaction to the move. The unprecedented security lockdown kept people indoors on Tuesday for a ninth day.<\/p>\n

Qureshi said in the letter to the Security Council that India’s repression in Kashmir has intensified in recent months, \u201cincluding through the use of draconian laws.\u201d He said that since Aug. 5, \u201cthe entire territory has been transformed into a massive military prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pakistani foreign minister warned that there is a \u201cdanger that India will provoke another conflict with Pakistan to divert attention from its recent actions\u201d in Kashmir.<\/p>\n

He pointed to what he called \u201cfake news in India’s controlled media mentioning ‘terrorists’ ready to enter occupied Kashmir across the Line of Control,\u201d the highly militarized frontier. This indicates \u201cthat India’s reckless government intends to provoke another crisis with Pakistan, possibly through a ‘false flag’ operation,\u201d Qureshi said.<\/p>\n

He said Pakistan did not want a conflict with India. \u201cBut India should not mistake our restraint for weakness. If India chooses to resort again to the use of force, Pakistan will be obliged to respond, in self-defence, with all its capabilities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pakistan called Tuesday for an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council, saying India’s decision to strip its part of …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":226814,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","mauthors-edith-m-lederer","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226813","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226813"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226813\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226815,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226813\/revisions\/226815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226813"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226813"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226813"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}