Stop terror to start talks, India tells Pakistan

United Nations: India on Friday firmly told Pakistan that it has to stop terrorism to start talks even as the UN Security Council held a rare closed door meeting to discuss the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

Briefing the media following the conclusion of the informal meeting requested by China and Pakistan, India’s permanent representative to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, said India’s  position was and remains that matters related to Article 370 were an internal matter of and that they had no external ramifications.

Without naming Pakistan, he said there were some who are trying to project an “alarmist approach” to the situation in Kashmir, which is far from ground realities. “Stop terror to start talks,” he said.

According to the UN records, the last time “the Security Council addressed the Indo-Pak dispute over the territories of Jammu and Kashmir” under the agenda item “India-Pakistan question”, was in 1965.

Voices of J&K heard at UN: Pak envoy
Earlier, briefing the media, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi said the voices of the people of Jammu and Kashmir were heard at the meeting of the UN Security Council.

After the meeting, Chinese ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun urged India and Pakistan to settle their differences peacefully and “discard the zero-sum game mentality”.

On the Chinese and Pakistani envoys’ remarks after the UNSC meeting, Mr Akbaruddin said, “For the first time after the end of Security Council consultations, we noted that two states (China and Pakistan) who made national statements tried to pass them off as the will of the international community.” “India remains committed to ensure that the situation in Kashmir remains calm and peaceful. We are committed to all the agreements that we have signed on this issue. We note that there are some who try to project an alarmist approach to the situation, which is far from the ground realities.”

“Of particular concern is that one state is using terminology of jihad and promoting violence in India, including by their leaders,” Mr Akbaruddin said, taking a swipe at Pakistan.