Pakistan raises Kashmir issue with United Nations officials

Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi briefed President of the Security Council for July Japanese Ambassador Koro Bessho, Ban’s Chief of staff and Under Secretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman on the situation in Kashmir, saying fundamental human rights were being ‘blatantly violated’ in the state. 

A statement issued by Pakistan’s mission to the UN here on Tuesday said Lodhi also forwarded letters written by Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz to the UN Secretary-General and the President of the Security Council expressing ‘Pakistan’s serious concern at the alarming situation’ in Kashmir and ‘drawing attention to the brutal killings of innocent civilians and grave violations of the fundamental human rights of the Kashmiris by the Indian occupation forces’. Lodhi also raised the killing of Wani in her meetings with the UN officials, calling it an ‘assassination of a Kashmiri youth leader’. 

“Dubbing the Kashmiris agitating for their right to self-determination as terrorists was a travesty of truth and was further inflaming passions,” she said in the statement. The Pakistani envoy was informed that the UN Secretary General was concerned about the situation in Kashmir and was ready to mediate peace talks between India and Pakistan provided the two neighbours accept his good offices, the statement said.