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UN shows concern over India’s move to abolish special status of IoK

UN shows concern over India’s move to abolish special status of IoK
August 6, 2019
NEW YORK (92 News) – The United Nations (UN) has expressed concern over Indian government’s move to abolish the special status of Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK), an UN-recognized disputed territory. The concern was expressed by UN Secretary-General’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric while talking to reporters at the regular briefing at the UN Headquarters in New York. Dujarric said the UN secretary general has all along maintained that India and Pakistan should resolve all outstanding disputes between the two countries, including Kashmir, through dialogue. He urged all parties to exercise restraint. Earlier, the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, known as UNMOGIP, has observed and reported an increase in military activities along the Line of Control (LoC). A group of Defence Attaches belonging to P-5 members of the Security Council paid a visit along the Line of Control (LoC) to witness the aggression committed by Indian army. Officials reviewed the human and property losses that took place as a result of cluster bombs used by Indian forces. Pakistani security officials presented spot evidence of use of cluster bombs to the delegates. A day earlier, India revoked the special status of Kashmir, the Himalayan region that has long been a flashpoint in ties with Pakistan. In the most far-reaching political move in one of the world’s most militarised regions in nearly seven decades, India said it would scrap a constitutional provision that allows its state of Jammu and Kashmir to make its own laws. “The entire constitution will be applicable to Jammu and Kashmir,” Interior Minister Amit Shah told parliament. The Indian government also lifted a ban on property purchases by non-residents, opening the way for Indians to invest and settle there, just as they can elsewhere in India, although the measure is likely to provoke a backlash in the region. Pakistan, which also claims Kashmir, said it strongly condemned the decision, which is bound to further strain ties between the nuclear-armed rivals. “As the party to this international dispute, Pakistan will exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps,” the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said in a statement. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, convulsed by a nearly 30-year armed revolt in which tens of thousands of people have died, with hundreds of thousands of Indian troops deployed to quell it.