Washington, August 24
The US is working on a two-pronged strategy to defuse fresh tensions between India and Pakistan after New Delhi revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, senior officials from the Trump administration here said.
The first strategy is to exert pressure on Pakistan to refrain it from indulging in any cross-border infiltration or providing material or financial support to terrorist activities in India, particularly in Kashmir, they said. The second strategy is to encourage India to bring normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir and ensure that human rights of the people there are protected, political prisoners are released and channels of communications are reopened.
President Donald Trump is “calling” on Pakistan “to prevent the infiltration of militants across the line of control and to crack down on terror groups on its territory that have carried out attacks in India,” a senior US government official said. Another official said it was important that Islamabad demonstrated its commitment to not let its soil being used for cross-border terrorism.
Referring to the massive infiltration of terrorists and non-state actors by Pakistan inside India in 1989, the official said the US has warned Islamabad against repeating any such tactics. “The 1989 playbook was a failure for both the people of Kashmir as well as for Pakistan,” the official said, adding that the US didn’t want Pakistan to use the current situation for massive infiltration of terrorist and non-state actors inside India.
US officials have also warned Pakistan of facing an imminent prospect of being blacklisted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) if Islamabad doesn’t act on its commitments against terrorism financing. — PTI
India playing with fire: Pak President
Islamabad: Pakistan President Arif Alvi has said that India is playing with fire by revoking Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and the same fire will burn its secularism. He said this to ‘Vice News’, an American-Canadian media outlet on Saturday. According to a report, Alvi said India was living in a 'fool's paradise' if it thought revoking Article 370 could improve the Kashmir situation in Kashmir. IANS
UN hopes talks for ‘humanitarian access’ to Kashmir move forward
United Nations: Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, hopes that under the current situation in Kashmir, negotiations by UN human rights officials for access to the area can move forward, according to his Associate Spokesperson Eri Kaneko. “We are aware that our human rights contacts are in touch at various levels with the Indian government. So we will hope that these contacts will continue to allow for access,” Kaneko said on Friday. IANS
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