There are limits to our restraint: Pakistan tells India

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan's U.N. envoy asked the president of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday to informally brief the body on the country's escalating tension with neighboring India and said she will discuss it with U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Friday.

Indian officials claimed elite troops crossed into Azad Jammu Kashmir on Thursday and killed suspected militants preparing to infiltrate India and carry out attacks on major cities.

Pakistani U.N. Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told Reuters she met with New Zealand's U.N. Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen, who is president of the 15-member Security Council for September.

"I brought to his attention the dangerous situation that is building up in our region as a result of Indian provocation," she said. "Our call to the international community is avert a crisis before there is one."

India's U.N. mission was not immediately available to comment.

Van Bohemen said he told the council on Thursday that Lodhi had visited him to raise concerns about the situation with India. "I briefed the council on her approach," he said.

"Pakistan is showing maximum restraint but there are limits to our restraint if India continues with provocations," Lodhi said. "Right now our effort is just to tell everyone 'this is what's happened so far, watch this space because it's a very dangerous space'."

She said there had already been "ominous signs of unusual movement" along the border with movements of troops and tanks and credible reports of Indian evacuations of some areas.