Aug 14, 2019, 1:09 PM

Pakistan calls for urgent UN Security Council meeting on Kashmir

Pakistan calls for urgent UN Security Council meeting on Kashmir

TEHRAN, Aug. 14 (MNA) – Pakistan Tuesday formally called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security council over India's decision to revoke the special status of Kashmir, the Himalayan region that has long been a flashpoint in ties between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

The request for the meeting was contained in a letter from Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi that Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi presented to Polish Ambassador Joanna Wronecka, who is the president of the 15-member Council for the month of August.

"Pakistan will not provoke a conflict. But India should not mistake our restraint for weakness," Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi wrote in a letter to the Security Council.

"If India chooses to resort again to the use of force, Pakistan will be obliged to respond, in self defence, with all its capabilities," he said, adding that "in view of the dangerous implications" Pakistan requested the meeting.

Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz told reporters at the United Nations on Tuesday that the council had received a letter from Pakistan and "will discuss that issue and take a proper decision."

The Himalayan region is divided between India, which rules the populous Kashmir Valley and the Hindu-dominated region around Jammu city, Pakistan, which controls a wedge of territory in the west, and China, which holds a thinly populated high-altitude area in the north.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on India and Pakistan to refrain from any steps that could affect the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Guterres also said he was concerned about reports of restrictions on the Indian side of Kashmir.

ZZ/PR

News Code 148869

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