India on India & Pakistan - Media Stakeout (16 August 2019)

Syed Akbaruddin, India's Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations, on Kashmir.

For his part, Indian Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said that during the meeting, “there were some who tried to project an alarmist approach to the situation, which is far from the ground realities.”

Of particular concern, he said, “is that one state is using terminology of Jihad against and promoting violence in India, including by their leaders.”

Akbaruddin said, “using terror to try and push your goal is not the way that normal states behave. No democracy will acknowledge or accept talks when terror thrives. Stop terror, to start talks.”

The Indian Government announced last week that it was revoking the special status of the area of Kashmir that it administers, putting the region under tighter central Government control. Pakistan argues that the removal of the territory’s special status, which has a majority-Muslim population, violates international law.

The UN has long maintained an institutional presence in the contested area between India and Pakistan. According to the Security Council mandate given in resolution 307 of 1971, the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) observes and reports on ceasefire violations along and across the Line of Control and the working boundary between the South Asian neighbours in Jammu and Kashmir, as well as reports developments that could lead to ceasefire violations.

Secretary-General António Guterres appealed for ‘maximum restraint’ over the territory of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday, which has been disputed by India and Pakistan, since the end of British rule in the late 1940s.