U.S. Supports Direct Dialogue Between Pakistan and India
The United States says it supports direct dialogue between India and Pakistan on the disputed Kashmir region and called for calm and restraint as the dispute escalated.
This came after Pakistan said it would downgrade diplomatic relations and suspend bilateral trade with arch-rival India after New Delhi stripped its portion of the contested Kashmir region of special status. Pakistan also said it would expel the Indian High Commissioner.
“We continue to support direct dialogue between India and Pakistan on Kashmir and other issues of concern,” a US department spokesperson said in a statement.
Other nations react
China also criticised India’s decision to carve out a separate administrative territory in Buddhistdominated Ladakh region. “India has continued to undermine China’s territorial sovereignty by unilaterally changing its domestic law,” foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he had expressed concern to his Indian counterpart about the situation in the disputed Kashmir region.
“I have spoken to the Indian foreign minister,” Raab said. “We’ve expressed some of our concerns around the situation and called for calm, but also had a clear readout of the situation from the perspective of the Indian government.”
Tension
Armed soldiers stood in front of coils of barbed wire in Indian Kashmir’s summer capital of Srinagar as a massive security lockdown imposed on the restive region by the Hindu nationalist government took hold.
An eerie silence hung over the city, punctuated by sporadic bursts of gunfire and the rumbling of armoured vehicles moving through near-empty streets.
New Delhi stripped the Himalayan region of its seven-decadelong semi-autonomous status on Monday through a contentious presidential decree, just hours after it imposed a crippling curfew on the valley.
Locals and even security personnel fear that once the curfew lifts, unrest will break out as protesters vent their anger and frustration at the national government’s action. “You can’t hold a state under curfew forever,” Iltija Javed, daughter of detained former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti, told AFP from Srinagar.
Authorities continue to insist the region is peaceful, although media reports said more than 100 people including political leaders and activists have been arrested for being a threat to the peace.