UNITED NATIONS: Maleeha Lodhi, the Pakistan’s permanent representative at the United Nations, has asked the UN’s Security Council president to informally brief the body on the country’s escalating tension with neighbouring India and said she would discuss it with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Pakistani UN Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told Reuters she met with New Zealand’s UN Ambassador Gerard van Bohemen, who is president of the 15-member Security Council for September.
“I brought to his attention the dangerous situation that is building up in our region as a result of Indian provocation,” she said. “Our call to the international community is avert a crisis before there is one.”
Indian officials said “elite troops crossed into Azad Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday and killed suspected militants preparing to infiltrate India and carry out attacks on major cities”, in a raid that raised tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.
India’s UN mission was not immediately available to comment. Van Bohemen said he told the council that Lodhi had visited him to raise concerns about the situation with India. “I briefed the council on her approach,” he said.
Pakistan said two of its soldiers had been martyred in exchange of fire on Thursday, but denied India had made any targeted strikes. The incident has raised the possibility of military escalation between the neighbours that could wreck a 2003 ceasefire.
“Pakistan is showing maximum restraint but there are limits to our restraint if India continues with provocations,” Lodhi said. “Right now our effort is just to tell everyone ‘this is what’s happened so far, watch this space because it’s a very dangerous space’.”
She said there had already been “ominous signs of unusual movement” along the border with movements of troops and tanks and credible reports of Indian evacuations of some areas.
