ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday wrote to heads of state of permanent UN member countries (P5), urging them to call on the Indian government to immediately cease bloodshed in India-held Kashmir and implement UNSC resolutions on Kashmir.

The United Nations Security Council's (UNSC) five permanent members, the P5, include China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Nawaz highlighted human rights and humanitarian law violations in occupied Kashmir being perpetrated by Indian forces and termed the Kashmir dispute a constant source of tension and instability in the region and a threat to international peace and security.

The premier urged the P5 countries to ask India to honour its human rights obligations and commitment to the Kashmiri people, and highlighted Pakistan's commitment to peacefully resolve the dispute in accordance with UNSC resolutions.

He also called on the P5 to fulfil their responsibility with regard to the Kashmir dispute, one of the oldest internationally recognised unresolved disputes on the UNSC agenda.

Despite the passage of more than 68 years since the adoption of multiple resolutions, the people of Kashmir still await the implementation of these resolutions which promised them the right to self-determination to be exercised through the holding of a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices.

Pakistan envoy at UN takes India to task

The permanent representative of Pakistan at United Nations in Geneva, Ambassador Tehmina Janjua, while speaking at the Human Rights Council, took India to task for sponsoring state-terrorism in India-held Kashmir.

Ambassador Janjua stated that the life and liberty of civilians in Kashmir is governed by draconian laws — such as the Armed Forces Special Powers Act — that allows arbitrary detention, searches, seizures, shoot to kill on suspicion, and the use of lethal force.

“More than 700,000 Indian troops are imposing, with complete impunity, a reign of terror against innocent civilians, children, women and the elderly,” said the permanent representative.

Pakistan has given evidence to the UNSG and international community of Indian involvement in terrorist activities inside Pakistan by supporting terrorism in Balochistan and Karachi.

The evidence also includes information about the links of Indian intelligence and security agencies with the Taliban.

Ambassador Janjua strongly emphasised the need for the Human Rights Council to respond to the deteriorating situation in the occupied Kashmir.

She said that the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights' fact finding mission to held territory would show the world, the reality unfolding every day in the occupied valley.

Know more: Pakistan, India set to clash on Kashmir at UN

Nawaz is currently in New York to attend the 71st UN General Assembly where he plans to highlight gross human rights violations in Indian-held Kashmir.

Relations between India and Pakistan, already at a record low, worsened on Sunday when suspected militants attacked an Indian military base in held Kashmir and killed 17 soldiers.

Although Pakistan strongly condemned the attack, Indian Home Minister Rajnath Singh immediately put the blame on Islamabad.

“Pakistan is a terrorist state and it should be identified and isolated as such,” he tweeted.

A Pakistani diplomat at the United Nations called it “a very reckless statement” and drew attention to India’s “ruthless military campaign” in the Valley where Indian security forces had killed 104 civilians and injured more than 10,000 since early July.