The UN Security Council is expected to meet on Friday to consider Pakistan’s request for to address the precarious situation in the Indian administered Kashmir.
The 15-member body will meet amidst ratcheting tensions between Pakistan and India, who both are nuclear-armed and claim Kashmir.
The South Asian neighbors have been in a tense diplomatic faceoff following New Delhi’s move to integrate the disputed territory into India.
The sensitive Line of Control in Kashmir is also a flashpoint, where any aggression can result in exchange of fire. Reports say the Indian security forces have used pellet guns against protestors.
Picture taken by Views and News of a poster exhibition on Kashmir at Pakistan Embassy in Washington D.C.
According to Polish Ambassador Joanna Wronecka, who is the president of the Security Council for the month of August, the Council is likely to hold consultations on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir on Friday.
Wroneeka did not specify any time for the move, which reflects a heightened sense of urgency among members of the Council about the exacerbating situation in the Indian controlled Kashmir.
Islamabad has cited threat to peace and security in the region, emanating from the unilateral move of the BJP government altering the status of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region. Indian PM Narendra Modi and his followers celebrated the move as some kind of victory.
Prime Minister Imran Khan has compared Modi’s extreme policies to Nazis in WW II, and warned the world of much wider ramification if tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors get out of control.
Photo: Screenshot/VOA YouTube Video
Human Rights advocates have pointed out serious violations in the Indian occupied Kashmir, which remains under clampdown for the tenth successive day.
The request for consultations was made by China, a permanent member of the Security Council, she said.
Islamabad had called for the Security Council meeting on Monday when Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi delivered a letter to the Security Council President from Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, which contained the meeting request.
“This is an issue of law and justice and we are confident that the international community, members of the Security Council, will come down on the right side of history,” she has said.
“The right side of history is to stand by people who been turned into prisoners on their own land, whose very basic liberties have been curbed, and now their religious freedom has even been curtailed…”
Kashmiris hold candlelight vigil outside White House to demand freedom from Indian occupation
Photo Views and News
Addressed to the UNSC president, the foreign minister’s letter condemns “recent aggressive actions” by India, saying they “willfully undermine the internationally recognized disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir.”
He also accused India of “racist ideology” aimed at turning its part of Kashmir from a Muslim-majority into a Hindu-majority territory.
“The Indian actions on August 5, 2019 have opened the way for realization of this fascist policy objective,” Quereshi wrote.
Pakistan has halted trade and transportation links with India.
Meanwhile, human rights organizations have called on New Delhi for cutting off the valley from rest of the world and indiscriminately targeting people in its clampdown.
