Pakistan will not resort to a military action to settle Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s annexation of the disputed Kashmir territory, foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said as tensions soared over New Delhi’s decision to tighten its grip on the region.
“Pakistan is not looking at the military option. We are rather looking at political, diplomatic, and legal options to deal with the prevailing situation,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said as Indian military besieged the Kashmir valley.
He told a news conference that Pakistan has decided to go to the UN Security Council in the wake of Modi’s unilateral move to change the status of the disputed territory, partly controlled by both Islamabad and New Delhi.
“We have decided to go back to the UN security council to challenge this Indian position, which is morally incorrect,” he added as the two nuclear-armed neighbors faced tense standoff over change in status of Kashmir, which has been in lockdown for days.
Kashmiris fear that Indians will run over their territory with settlements and turn them into a subjugated minority.
Pakistan has suspended bilateral trade with India, and expelled New Delhi’s envoy from Islamabad.
Islamabad is also suspending a rail service linking it to India in a bitter standoff with India, where the BJP government is widely seen as anti-Muslim as it believes in complete domination of the Hindu majority as per Hindutva ideology.
“We have decided to shut down Samjhauta Express,” Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed told a news conference on Thursday.
“As long as I am railways minister, Samjhauta Express cannot operate”.
Islamabad is also banning the screening of Indian films in the country’s cinemas.
“No Indian cinema will be screened in any Pakistani cinema. Drama, films and Indian content of this kind will be completely banned in Pakistan,” Firdous Ashiq Awan, Special Assistant to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said in a tweet.
Meanwhile, India has dismissed Pakistan’s moves and said its decision to strip the restive region of its autonomy was an “internal affair.”
In his speech broadcast on Thursday evening, India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, whose political career has been dogged by accusation of fanning anti-Muslim violence, hailed the changes for Jammu and Kashmir, as historic.
