Pakistan urges UN to take notice of escalating actions by India

NEW YORK: Pakistan has drawn the attention of the United Nations to India’s escalating actions which are fuelling tensions and threatening regional peace and security.

In letters addressed to the President of the UN Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Maleeha Lodhi, said that Indian occupation troops in Kashmir launched artillery barrages last week in a major escalation of attacks on the Line of Control (LoC) threatening regional peace and security.

“This was the first use of such weapons in 13 years and was a clear indication of the Indian intention to further escalate tensions and undermine regional peace and security,” she wrote and argued that this was an effort by India to divert the international attention from its continued violations of human rights in the Indian-occupied Kashmir.

Ambassador Lodhi called on the UN chief and the Security Council as the custodians of international peace and security to take note of the continued ceasefire violations by India that pose a real danger to regional peace and security.

She told the UN authorities that the frequency of these violations has increased over the last two months.  She wrote, “Indiscriminate firing and shelling deliberately targeting civilian populated areas have resulted in 26 civilian casualties and injury to another 107 civilians, including women and children, in the past two months.

“Pakistan has condemned these continued ceasefire violations which are a contravention of the 2003 Ceasefire Understanding as well as of international law.” In her letters, Ambassador Lodhi also referred to India’s continued non-cooperative attitude and denial of access to the United Nations Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) that has been mandated to maintain peace and tranquility on the Line of Control and the Working Boundary.

“Pakistan, of course, fully cooperates and provides unhindered access to UNMOGIP on its side of the Line of Control and the Working Boundary,” she added. In her letter to the President of the Security Council, Fode Seck, Ambassador Lodhi also requested for the letter to be circulated to all the members of the Security Council under the Agenda Item, “The India Pakistan Question”. The letter has since been circulated as an official document of the Council.

--Originally published in The News