NEW YORK: A senior United Nations official is to begin a four-day trip to Pakistan on Wednesday during which he will visit a field station of the United Nations Military Observer Group on Kashmir on the Pakistani side of the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed region, according to UN sources.
Deputy Military Adviser for Peacekeeping, Maj Gen Adrian Foster will also have meetings at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad and at the Military Operations Directorate in the course of the April 27-30 visit.
Gen Foster’s visit coincides with reports about India toughening its stance against UN Military Observers Group on India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP). The Indians have long opposed UNMOGIP claiming that the whole of Kashmir was an integral part of India, a claim which runs counter to the UN resolutions which declare the territory as disputed.
New Delhi, it is learnt, has asked UNMOGIP to vacate premises of two of its field stations in Indian Occupied Kashmir, currently operating in Poonch and Rajouri. These premises are on rent from the Indian Government.
The Indian government had initially set 1st March 2016 as the deadline to vacate the two buildings. On its part, UNMOGIP is understood to have expressed its inability to comply on the ground that they needed more time to fulfill their administrative procedures. UNMOGIP also asked the Indian Government to assist in providing an alternate site or grant visas for the Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) support staff in New York to visit Indian occupied Kashmir and locate suitable buildings through market surveys, as required by their laid down procedures.
The deadline has now reportedly been extended till July 31, 2016.
