UNITED NATIONS: A top Pakistani diplomat Wednesday raised with senior UN officials the latest round of atrocities by Indian troops which involved targeting a civilian passenger bus and an ambulance in Kashmir, calling it a grave violation of international humanitarian law.
According to a press release of the Pakistan Mission to the UN, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi said the attack on an ambulance trying to evacuate the injured was a particularly “abhorrent act” that was a breach of the most fundamental legal and humanitarian laws.
Briefing the Deputy Secretary General, Jan Eliasson, and the Chef de Cabinet of the Secretary General, Edmond Mulet on Wednesday, Ambassador Lodhi said that this situation posed a “grave threat to international peace and security”.
She said that this attack led to the martyrdom of nine innocent people and severe injuries to nine others.
Ambassador Lodhi told UN officials that escalating tensions on the Line of Control was a deliberate attempt by India to divert the attention of the international community from the gross human right violations being committed by the occupation army in Indian held Kashmir.
She also told UN officials that a particularly deplorable aspect of the latest escalation was the deliberate targeting by Indian troops of innocent civilians.
The Pakistani envoy reminded them of the UN’s obligations in this regard and urged them to live up to these commitments.
UN officials shared Pakistan’s concern that the escalating situation could spin out of control, the press release said.
The UN Department of Peace-Keeping Operations was separately asked to mobilize UNMOGIP to effectively monitor the Line of Control and the Working Boundary as a step to help de-escalate tensions between India and Pakistan.
Ambassador briefed UN officials about the latest phase of the Kashmiri uprising that started with the assassination of young Kashmiri leader, Burhan Wani, on July 8. Wani’s funerals held all over Indian Occupied Kashmir was attended by hundreds and thousands of Kashmiris. But this indigenous uprising of the Kashmiris has again been met by brutal repression by India’s occupation force of over half a million, it was pointed out.
She urged the UN to not only take action to halt the human rights abuses being committed by Indian forces but also to act before the escalating tensions snowball into a full-fledged crisis.
In recent months statements by the UN Secretary General have repeatedly called for de-escalation of tensions between Pakistan and India but New Delhi has ignored these and continued to act with impunity in the disputed territory of Kashmir.
