US should force India to take back decision: Pakistani envoy

WASHINGTON (92 News) – Pakistan has called on the Trump administration to help ease tensions after India revoked the status of Indian Occupied Kashmir IoK unilaterally. In an interview with American TV channel in Washington, Pakistani Ambassador to US Asad Khan said the US could do and the US must do more to help defuse this situation and to inject some more sanity on the Indian side. Meanwhile, US Department of State spokesperson Morgan Ortagus said the US policy toward Kashmir has not changed and the US is incredibly engaged in Southeast Asia. “Kashmir even according to India’s own constitution has enjoyed a special status. What India has done is to unilaterally change the status of the territory which is recognised by the entire international community including the United Nations as a disputed territory and we as a party to that dispute have a serious issue with what India has done,” Khan said. He continued, “The consequences of India’s action has led to a lockdown in the region and India actually has its troops present in the valley, turning the whole valley into the largest prison in the world with about 12 million people watched by troops and we are concerned about it.” Responding to a question about Pakistan’s response, the ambassador said, “The world saw our restraint even during the Pulwama crisis where India violated our sovereignty and sent aircraft to bomb our side of the territory, even in the face of that kind of aggression our response was very measured.” “Our response was dictated by restraint. Our prime minister was here on a visit to the US and consistently spoke about Pakistan’s desire for peace. I think we remain committed to that but essentially I think what is really important is that this escalation we are seeing on India’s side needs to be de-escalated for the two countries to engage in dialogue.” When asked what role does Pakistan expects other countries to play and in particular from the US, Khan said, “The State Department spokesperson the other day very clearly said that there is no change in US position on Kashmir.”