Pakistan may ratchet up tension along LOC ahead of UNGA meet

NEWDELHI: With its efforts to internationalise the Kashmir issue not playing to script, Pakistan may ratchet up tension along the Line of Control (LOC) – facilitating infiltration by militants and more ceasefire violations – in the run-up to the beginning of the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York between September 24 and 30.

The UNGA opens with the Climate Action summit on September 23, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking in the first of the three groups of speakers at the event.

According to diplomats and national security officials based here, New York and Geneva, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is not accompanying PM Modi on his US trip. He has decided to focus on J&K because New Delhi believes Islamabad will try to orchestrate violence in the valley ahead of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s speech at the UNGA.

The diplomats added that at the Organization of Islamic Conference’s (OIC) meeting this week, the Kashmir issue was not even discussed with Arab nations more worried about aggressive statement of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on Palestine. This has been diplomatically conveyed to the Indian government, they added.

Similarly, other international groupings such as the Commonwealth of Nations have communicated that they have no appetite to raise the Kashmir issue in the context of abrogation of Article 370 last month by the Modi government.

While Islamabad is running out of time to either force an urgent debate or a resolution (the time bar is September 19) at the UN Human Rights Council, Geneva, the Indian assessment is that the human rights body is simply not convinced about Pakistan’s claims of genocide in the Valley. Apart from PM Khan raising the Kashmir issue at his UNGA speech on September 27, Islamabad may also try to push the issue in some of the committee meetings that begin from