SRINAGAR: Members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) met for the first time in nearly five decades on Friday to discuss the critical situation in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, urging parties to the dispute to refrain from taking any unilateral action.
The meeting began as Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke with US President Donald Trump, who last month offered to mediate in the seven-decade old Kashmir dispute between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan.
New Delhi ended the autonomous status of the Muslim-majority disputed territory in the first week of August, stepping up movement restrictions and cutting off phone and internet access to head off civil unrest, and igniting calls from Pakistan for the international community to intervene.
Friday’s Security Council meeting in New York is the first to discuss Kashmir since 1972. Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dr Maleeha Lodhi said the highest world forum, the UN Security Council “has heard the voice of the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir” at its consultative meeting in New York on the request of Pakistan and China.
Talking to media alongside the Chinese envoy to the UN after the UNSC meeting, she said all the 15 permanent and non-permanent member countries attended the session.
“The voice of the Kashmiri people has been heard today. They are not alone, their voices have been heard. This is an international dispute. We are grateful for the 15 members of UNSC. We are ready for a peaceful settlement of Jammu and Kashmir. It nullifies that Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter of India.” The Chinese ambassador emphasised on the human rights situations. This is not the first and last step,” she said.
She said the meeting took stock of the plight and sufferings of the people of the occupied Kashmir in the wake of unilateral Indian move to change the status of held valley. Lodhi said this UNSC meeting is the testimony of validity of the UN resolutions on the Kashmir dispute and it has nullified Indian claims that Kashmir is their internal matter.
The Chinese diplomat said members of the UNSC had expressed their “serious concerns” over the situation, particularly human rights situation, in held Kashmir. “The status of Kashmir is undecided, it is an international recognised dispute and it should be resolved with peaceful means, and according to the UN resolutions,” the Chinese envoy told a news conference at the UN Headquarters in New York.
He said general views of the members were that parties concerned should refrain from taking any unilateral action which might aggravate the situation. He said China was deeply concerned about the situation and expressed grave concerns at the current situation in Kashmir at the UNSC. The situation in the state was “serious and dangerous”.
He said India had “violated the bilateral agreement to keep peace in the border areas” by the constitutional amendment. “The situation is already very tense and dangerous right now there [in Kashmir].
India has violated bilateral agreement to keep peace in the border areas. It is obvious the constitutional amendment by India has changed the status quo by India,” the Chinese envoy said. He said such unilateral practices [as were carried out by the Indian government] were not valid. The Chinese diplomat said the Security Council asked India to refrain from any unilateral step which was dangerous. His statement came after the UNSC held a closed-door meeting on the Kashmir situation after Pakistan approached it against New Delhi’s August 5 decision.
India’s ambassador to the United Nations later slammed the UNSC meeting on Kashmir. “We don’t need international busybodies to try to tell us how to run our lives,” Syed Akbaruddin told reporters in New York. Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since independence from Britain in 1947.