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- Jul 7, 2014
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WASHINGTON: The United States said on Tuesday that stripping Kashmir of its special status has implications that go beyond the Indian border.
At a special briefing on South Asia, a State Department official urged India to quickly release thousands of detainees arrested since Aug 5 and restore basic freedom in the disputed territory.
The US official also had a message for Pakistan: restrain militancy, prevent cross-border attacks and hold bilateral talks with India to resolve the Kashmir dispute.
Asked how serious the threat of yet another India-Pakistan war over Kashmir was, the official said the United States “never takes for granted the security between two nuclear powers when there’s a conflict, that is dividing them and has divided the two countries for decades”.
“One of the reasons that we continue to espouse direct contacts and welcome that the DGMO hotline exists - because there needs to be clarity and understanding of the actions and motivations of either side,” the official added.
“So that’s something we take seriously. The attack in Pulwama demonstrated to the world how quickly terrorist incident can escalate in ways that potentially could be quite unpredictable.”
Asked to comment on Pakistan’s decision to take the Kashmir dispute to the International Court of Justice, the official said it was Pakistan’s sovereign decision to approach other platforms, but the State Department’s view was that “resolution in Kashmir is not aided by multilateralising it, but by direct conversation between India and Pakistan.”
Responding to a question about India’s claim that any negotiations with Pakistan now would be over the areas under Islamabad’s control, the official said it was a “standard talking points by Indian officials” on Kashmir.
The official also said that the United States has long called for “direct conversation between India and Pakistan to resolve … decades of tensions generated by that issue.”
The official said the Trump administration was focusing “on the human rights situation” in the occupied Valley and was “encouraging India to quickly release detainees and to restore basic freedoms.”
Referring to the plan Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi laid out in his address last week, the US official underlined the need for “returning to political normalcy to Jammu and Kashmir, whether first as a union territory but then as a state and the restoration of political dialogue.”
The US official noted that Kashmir has always been an important and emotional issue for Pakistan, but reminded Islamabad of the need to discourage militancy.
Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2019
At a special briefing on South Asia, a State Department official urged India to quickly release thousands of detainees arrested since Aug 5 and restore basic freedom in the disputed territory.
The US official also had a message for Pakistan: restrain militancy, prevent cross-border attacks and hold bilateral talks with India to resolve the Kashmir dispute.
Asked how serious the threat of yet another India-Pakistan war over Kashmir was, the official said the United States “never takes for granted the security between two nuclear powers when there’s a conflict, that is dividing them and has divided the two countries for decades”.
“One of the reasons that we continue to espouse direct contacts and welcome that the DGMO hotline exists - because there needs to be clarity and understanding of the actions and motivations of either side,” the official added.
“So that’s something we take seriously. The attack in Pulwama demonstrated to the world how quickly terrorist incident can escalate in ways that potentially could be quite unpredictable.”
Asked to comment on Pakistan’s decision to take the Kashmir dispute to the International Court of Justice, the official said it was Pakistan’s sovereign decision to approach other platforms, but the State Department’s view was that “resolution in Kashmir is not aided by multilateralising it, but by direct conversation between India and Pakistan.”
Responding to a question about India’s claim that any negotiations with Pakistan now would be over the areas under Islamabad’s control, the official said it was a “standard talking points by Indian officials” on Kashmir.
The official also said that the United States has long called for “direct conversation between India and Pakistan to resolve … decades of tensions generated by that issue.”
The official said the Trump administration was focusing “on the human rights situation” in the occupied Valley and was “encouraging India to quickly release detainees and to restore basic freedoms.”
Referring to the plan Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi laid out in his address last week, the US official underlined the need for “returning to political normalcy to Jammu and Kashmir, whether first as a union territory but then as a state and the restoration of political dialogue.”
The US official noted that Kashmir has always been an important and emotional issue for Pakistan, but reminded Islamabad of the need to discourage militancy.
Published in Dawn, August 21st, 2019
