Indian aggression could have serious impact on region: FM Qureshi writes to UN chief

 

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tuesday penned a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, saying Indian aggression had serious implications for the regional peace and stability.

In his letter, which was delivered to Guterres' office by Pakistan's Ambassador to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi, Qureshi wrote of the Indian forces' violation of the Line of Control on the morning of February 26.

The foreign minister also referred to the last time he sent a letter to the UN boss, wherein he had mentioned India's obsession with war as well as the worsening regional peace owing to threats being made from New Delhi.

Qureshi stated that he wrote his latest letter as tensions between the two South Asian neighbours are on the rise once again and that Indian warplanes "intruded" from the Muzaffarabad sector Tuesday night but were forced to return owing to the Pakistan Air Force's (PAF) timely response.

"Indian aircraft intrusion across LoC in Muzafarabad Sector within AJK was 3-4 miles. Under forced hasty withdrawal aircraft released payload which had free fall in open area. No infrastructure got hit, no casualties," Major General Asif Ghafoor, the director-general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), had said Tuesday morning on Twitter.

India targetted Pakistani soil, Qureshi added, terming it an aggression against Pakistan.

The minister further underscored that India was repetitively levelling claims of "terrorism" against Pakistan — rumours he claimed New Delhi was spreading to divert the attention from human rights violations in the Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK).

India's ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was using war-mongering for political gains, especially in light of their upcoming general elections, Qureshi pointed out.

Pakistan, he said, reserved the right of self-defence against India's aggression, which was an open violation of the United Nations' Charter, international laws, and interstate regulations.

The FM, therefore, urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to urge India to immediately halt its aggression.

"Deliver my letter to the members of the UN Security Council as part of the official record," Qureshi noted.

A notification from the body read that a copy of the letter was delivered to UNSC President Anatolio Ndong Mba. Further, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi circulated to the UN member states the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) condemnation of the Indian warplanes' airspace violations along the LoC.