Alarmed by the escalation of tension with India along the Line of Control (LoC), Pakistan on Thursday asked the United Nations to act before the situation snowballed into a “full-fledged crisis.”
This follows India's strong retaliation a day after three jawans were killed and the body of one of them was mutilated by terrorists in Machhil sector on the LoC on Tuesday. The Indian Army launched a massive fire assault on Pakistani posts in Kashmir and Pir Panchal Valleys on Wednesday morning and Pakistan said three soldiers and four civilians were killed in the Indian firing.
Pakistan’s Ambassador to the U.N. Maleeha Lodhi met the Deputy U.N. Secretary General Jan Eliasson and the Chef de Cabinet of the Secretary General Edmond Mulet and she alleged that the situation along the LoC posed a “grave threat to international peace and security.”
Ms. Lodhi, according to a statement issued by the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the U.N., in her meeting with the world body’s officials alleged that escalating tensions on the LoC “was a deliberate attempt” by India to “divert the attention of the international community from the gross human right violations being committed” by it in Kashmir.
Alleges attack on ambulance
Ms. Lodhi alleged that the attack on an ambulance trying to evacuate the injured was a particularly “abhorrent act” and that was a breach of the most fundamental legal and humanitarian laws.
The UN Department of Peace Keeping Operations was separately asked to mobilise the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to effectively monitor the LoC and the Working Boundary as a step to help deescalate tensions between India and Pakistan, the statement said.
The Pakistan Army said on Wednesday that seven persons, including three of its soldiers, were killed in an exchange of fire with Indian troops on the LoC.
The clash occurred a day after India warned of retribution after losing the three soldiers and after Pakistan rejected as “false” and “baseless” the charges that the body of an Indian soldier was mutilated by Pakistani soldiers in a cross-LoC attack.
