Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday wrote to the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, seeking their intervention in what he referred to as "grave human rights violations" in Jammu and Kashmir, according to Pakistan's Foreign Affairs Ministry. The letter states that the "non-resolution" of the Kashmir dispute was a "constant source of tension and instability in the region and a threat to international peace and security,"", PTI reported.
Sharif's letter comes days after an attack on the Indian Army's Uri base in Kashmir, which India believes Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed orchestrated. Pakistan, however, refuted the accusation and asked for "actionable evidence" to prove it.
The prime minister has urged the five UNSC members – the United States, China, Russia, France and the United Kingdom – "to fulfill their responsibility with regard to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute". He highlighted "Pakistan's commitment to peacefully resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the [Shimla Accord and Lahore Declaration] resolutions".
A day before he is expected to address the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly on the unrest in the Kashmir Valley, Sharif met US Secretary of State John Kerry, calling for Washington's intervention to help resolve the dispute in the region. Pakistan's UN envoy Maleeha Lodhi said on Twitter, "PM urged the US to play a role in the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute and highlighted human rights abuses in occupied Kashmir."
The meeting was held even as India demanded at the 33rd Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that Pakistan "stop inciting and supporting violence and terrorism in any part of India" and also "refrain from meddling in our internal affairs". "Pakistan has had territorial ambitions over Kashmir since 1947...We call upon the council to urge Pakistan to fulfill its obligation to vacate illegal occupation of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir," India said, highlighting the discrimination faced by religious and sectarian minorities in the neighbouring country, PTI reported.
India, on Monday, had decided that it will "diplomatically isolate" Pakistan at all international fora, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a high-level meeting to take stock of the situation following the Uri attack, in which 18 soldiers were killed.
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