ISLAMABAD, May 23: Pakistan sought on Thursday the United Nations intervention for restraining India from warpath and bringing it to the negotiating table for defusing the present volcanic situation in the region.
In a letter written by Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar to the UN Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council, the UN General Assembly and the Security Council have been asked to intervene to avert an imminent armed conflict between two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The letter draws the attention of the UN Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council to the explosive situation resulting from the massive Indian deployment along the international border with Pakistan, the working boundary and the Line of Control in Kashmir.
In the letter, the foreign minister says: “For the past five months, dangerous tensions have been whipped up in South Asia. India has moved forward and deployed nearly one million troops in battle position along the international border with Pakistan, the Working Boundary and the Line of Control in Kashmir.
“Despite the hundreds of thousands of troops it has stationed and the sophisticated devices it has deployed along the Line of Control, India accuses Pakistan of infiltration across the LoC. In making uncorroborated charges, India refuses to submit its allegations to monitoring by UNMOGIP or impartial surveillance and investigating.
“It disallows free access to international media and international human rights organizations in the occupied Kashmir that can independently assess the real situation in the territory. India also asserts that it will know when the alleged infiltration ceases, thus, arrogating to itself the role of the accuser and the judge.”
The foreign minister further says that the Indian leadership routinely blames Pakistan for every violent incident inside India and in occupied Kashmir.
“Some ruling BJP leaders have been accusing Pakistan even of the carnage in Gujarat, even though the Indian political opposition as well as local and international human rights groups placed the responsibility squarely on Hindu fanatics belonging to extremist organizations like the RSS — the parent body of the ruling BJP — VHP, Bajrang Dal and Shiv Sena.”
The letter says the same attitude has been adopted by the Indian government on the incidents of violence inside occupied Kashmir. Whether it was the Chitisingpura incident in March 2000, or the Amaranth Yatra killings later in the year, the Indian authorities always put the blame on Pakistan.
“Such false accusations malign the Kashmiri freedom struggle and are part of a propaganda strategy to perpetuate Indian occupation of the state. According to All Parties Hurriyat Conference over 75,000 Kashmiris have been massacred by Indian military, paramilitary and police forces,” says the foreign minister.
“India not only refused impartial international inquiries into these and other similar cases but also abandoned its own investigations when it began to appear that these murders may actually have been staged by Indian forces. The case of tampering with the DNA tests of innocent Kashmiris, killed as terrorists responsible for the Chitisingpura massacre, is too well-known to bear repetition,” says the letter.
In the letter, the foreign minister emphasises the need for the United Nations and international community to advise India to choose the path of negotiations, adding that Pakistan is ready to cooperate with the United Nations or the international community for reducing tension, preserving peace and promoting dialogue between the two countries.