UN urges India and Pakistan to exercise ‘maximum restraint’

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called on India and Pakistan to avoid a “military confrontation” that could spin out of control.

His remarks on Monday came ahead of a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council that discussed the escalating situation in South Asia. The meeting was held at Pakistan’s request.

“Now is the time for maximum restraint and stepping back from the brink,” Guterres told the media outside the council chambers at the UN headquarters in New York.

The UNSC did not release a statement after the meeting, which lasted for around 90 minutes.

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Indian news agency ANI reported, citing sources, that UNSC members posed “tough questions” to Pakistan regarding the April terror attack in Kashmir that claimed 26 lives. “The members refused to accept the ‘false flag’ narrative promoted by the Pakistani side and asked whether Lashkar-e-Taiba, a proscribed terror organisation with deep ties to Pakistan, was likely to be involved in the terror attack,” ANI wrote. 

Islamabad’s UN ambassador, Asim Iftikhar, told the media that his country had raised an “effective voice against Indian actions” in the Security Council, according to Pakistani newspaper the Express Tribune. Iftikhar also expressed reservations over India’s move to suspend the decades-old Indus Waters Treaty that regulated sharing of water between the two nations, calling it a violation of international law.

Ahmad denounced the Kashmir attack and denied Pakistan’s involvement. He further expressed his government’s willingness to fully cooperate with a transparent, independent, and international investigation, the paper added. 

India and Pakistan have exchanged fire for 12 days following the attack. The Indian Army said that Pakistan continued to violate a February 2021 ceasefire agreement by resorting to unprovoked small-arms fire from posts across the Line of Control, which is the de-facto border between the two countries in Kashmir.