Kashmir situation, Indian jingoism to affect US interests in region: Mushahid

NEW YORK: Prime Minister's special envoy on Kashmir, Senator Mushahid Hussain Wednesday said the situation in occupied Kashmir, coupled with Indian jingoism will affect United States' interests in the region.

PM’s envoys — Senator Mushahid Hussain and MNA Dr. Shezra Mansab Ali — arrived in New York from Washington over the weekend, where they handed over a dossier to the President of UN General Assembly, Peter Thomson, raising concerns over human rights violations in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK).

Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi accompanied the two envoys during their call on the 193-member Assembly’s president, according to a press statement by the Pakistan Mission to the UN.

Speaking at a luncheon in honour of journalists, they urged the United Nations (UN) to enhance the role of its Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP).

They called on the UN Security Council to act for the implementation of its resolutions on Kashmir and fulfilment of its responsibilities. Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said they were considering UNSC to ask for consultations on IoK.

Earlier, the two parliamentarians also had an interactive session with representatives of Kashmiri diaspora.

Of late, tensions soared high between the two nuclear-armed adversaries over the killing of more than 100 innocent Kashmiris by Indian forces in the occupied valley and an attack on Indian army's brigade headquarters in Uri, which left 18 soldiers dead.

On September 29, India claimed to have conducted surgical strikes in Azad Kashmir, saying that several terrorists were killed in the military action conducted inside Pakistani territory. The move by Modi government was apparently aimed at appeasing the Indian public.

The claims were not only rebuffed by Pakistan and the international media, but they also prompted demands from some Indian political leaders for New Delhi to substantiate it with evidence.

The Modi government drew criticism after the Pakistani military took a bus full of local and international journalists to the border area in order to show them the ground facts.

After having failed to substantiate the claims, PM Narendra Modi on October 5 barred leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party from talking to anyone over the strikes.

At a cabinet meeting he chaired later in New Delhi, Modi was unable to answer questions by the opposition which asked him to prove that the attack on the LoC was a surgical strike.

The skirmishes at the LoC and Working Boundary have since been continued off and on.