UNITED NATIONS: A senior Pakistani diplomat at the United Nations sternly warned India against its repeated threats to carry out “surgical strikes” across the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region, saying Pakistan would effectively respond to any Indian aggression.
“All I can say to them is: do not underestimate Pakistan’s resolve and capacity to defend itself,” Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday.
“Any aggression or intervention will meet a matching and effective response from our armed forces and the people of Pakistan,” she said while participating in a debate on the annual report of the UN secretary-general on the work of the organisation.
The ambassador urged the United Nations and the international community to take “urgent” action to prevail on India to stop its open threats to use force amid the tensions between the two countries.
India, she said, resorted to daily violations of the ceasefire along the LoC to cover up its crimes against the Kashmiri people and to divert world attention from its occupation.
“It claims, falsely, to have conducted a so-called ‘surgical strike’ across the Line of Control. This claim, and India’s repeated threats to conduct such ‘strikes’ across the LoC, constitute flagrant violations of the UN Charter’s injunction against the use or threat of use of force,” she pointed out.
“This provides Pakistan sufficient reason to respond in exercise of its right to self-defence. By making such false claims and blatant threats, are India’s leaders attempting to provoke a conflict with Pakistan?” she asked.
Describing the continuing Indian occupation of Jammu and Kashmir a travesty of justice, law and morality, the diplomat said the people of Indian-held Kashmir still awaited the implementation of numerous Security Council resolutions, adopted some 70 years ago, that promised them their inalienable right to self-determination.
Published in Daily Times, October 4th 2017.
