U.N. chief António Guterres called on the countries to resolve matters peacefully after the nuclear-armed neighbors began reacting to the attack in a popular tourism area.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres at U.N. headquarters on Wednesday. (UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe)
By Brett Wilkins
Common Dreams
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Thursday led calls for India and Pakistan to “exercise maximum restraint” as the nuclear-armed neighbors took tit-for-tat measures against each other in the wake of this week’s massacre of 26 people in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
Pakistan warned India that it was committing an “act of war” by suspending the landmark Indus Waters Treaty, which allows both countries to share the vital river system’s flow. Pakistan announced the suspension of trade and closed its airspace to Indian flights.
Both countries closed border ports of entry, canceled visas, and took other measures against each other.
India said it was downgrading relations with Pakistan, whom it blamed for supporting “cross-border terrorism” after gunmen killed 25 Indians and one Nepali and wounded at least 17 others at a popular vacation spot in Pahalgam, Kashmir on Tuesday.
A front group of the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed mostly tourists.
Pahalgam Valley in Kashmir, 2014. (Ajay Goyal/Flickr/ CC BY 2.0)
Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Asif countered that his country’s government believes “very strongly” that the attack “was a false flag operation.”
Speaking Thursday, Stephane Dujarric, Guterres’ spokesperson, said that “we very much appeal to both the governments of Pakistan and India to exercise maximum restraint, and to ensure that the situation and the developments we’ve seen do not deteriorate any further.”
“Any issues between Pakistan and India, we believe can be and should be resolved peacefully through meaningful mutual engagement,” he added.
Progressives from both sides of the border echoed calls for restraint.
“We, the people of Kashmir, have already suffered so much over the years — and now, more than ever, we want peace to prevail in our homeland,” Kashmiri social activist Jasib Shabir Bhat said on social media Wednesday. “We stand united for peace, for humanity, and for a better future for all.”
Pakistani author and activist Ehtesham Hassan wrote that “as a Pakistani who visited India and received immense love, I am devastated by the news from Pahalgam.”
“I wish peace for the common people of India and Pakistan regardless of religion,” Hassan added. “May sanity prevail between both nations.”
Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
This article is from Common Dreams.
Views expressed in this article and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
The two seemingly intractable flash points in the world are Kashmir and Gaza ; if we could focus and solve just those two conflicts,
the rest of our antagonisms might resolve themselves. Taking on the hardest problems first could point the way to peace