Pakistan Urges World Community To Take Steps To Avoid New Conflict Over Kashmir

Pakistan's Ambassador to the U.S., Asad Majeed Khan, has said that India's crackdown in occupied Kashmir has created a grave situation in the disputed region that threatens its peace and security

NEW YORK, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 4th Sep, 2019 ) :Pakistan's Ambassador to the U.S., Asad Majeed Khan, has said that India's crackdown in occupied Kashmir has created a grave situation in the disputed region that threatens its peace and security.

In an interview with NEWSWEEK, a mass-circulation American magazine, he said that "things are getting worse" in occupied Kashmir as the "complete lockdown" following the repeal of Articles 370 and 35A removed the disputed territory's special status approached its one-month mark.

The Pakistani envoy pointed to widespread reports of "an uninterrupted curfew, restraining the movement of people and internet and telephone suspension" as well as instances of violence with few other details emerging from the closed-off state.

Ambassador Khan went on to warn that the Indian atrocities could destabilize the region to the point of another conflict between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan if left unchecked by world power Though happening on the other side of the disputed Line of Control, he said cross-border relations were deteriorating along with conditions in India-occupied Kashmir. He warned that "we are also clearly seeing an escalation on the Line of Control in the kind of weapons India is using." "This is of immense concern," Khan added. "It's not just a serious and grave humanitarian crisis, but a danger to peace and security in the region." In an op-ed published Friday in The New York Times, Prime Minister Khan discussed his frustration in attempting to reach out to Modi's government in past months. As the situation escalated in recent weeks, he warned: "If the world does nothing to stop the Indian assault on Kashmir and its people, there will be consequences for the whole world as two nuclear-armed states get ever closer to a direct military confrontation.

" He pointed specifically to Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh's comment earlier this month that New Delhi has so far "strictly adhered" to its "no-first-use" nuclear weapons policy, but that "what happens in future depends on the circumstances." Ambassador Khan also highlighted these remarks, telling Newsweek he "would not like to speculate on what it would look like if conflict erupts"? and that "Pakistan has acted with great restraint and responsibility"?Prime Minister Khan later reaffirmed his country's commitment to "no-first-use"?but Ambassador Khan said that Singh's words were "an act of irresponsibility on India's part and the world should take notice of that." The Pakistani envoy further warned that such talk was the product of Modi having tried to "whip up a national frenzy to gain domestic political mileage." "And he did, actually, that's our fear," he added. "We're very fearful." The U.N. Human Rights Office and Amnesty International India recently painted a grim picture of deteriorating conditions under lockdown in Kashmir, including arbitrary arrests, a media blackout and swelling violence.

Raja Farooq Haider, the Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, also appealed for international support to free residents from what he called "the world's largest open-air prison" across the border in a recent conversation with Newsweek.