India’s ambassador to the United Nations on August 16 slammed international interference over Kashmir, after the Security Council held its first formal meeting on the disputed region in almost 50 years.
“We don’t need international busybodies to try to tell us how to run our lives,” Syed Akbaruddin told reporters in New York. “We took preventive measures in Kashmir to stop terrorists bleeding our people,” he added.
Matters relating to Article 370 on Kashmir are “entirely an internal matter of India and have no external ramifications”, Mr. Akbaruddin said. “Our national position was and remains that matters pertaining to Article 370 are entirely an internal matter of India. These have no external ramifications.”
He said that after the end of the closed consultations “we noted that two states that made national statements tried to pass them off as the will of the international community”.
Mr. Akbaruddin said that the UNSC is a “very deliberative institution. It works in a very considered manner. Its outcomes are provided to all of us through the president”.
He said that since some were trying to “masquerade” national statements as the will of the international community, he was there to explain India’s national position. He also said that some were trying to project an “alarmist situation” in Kashmir to propagate their ideology, referring to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s U.N. ambassador said the UNSC session showed that people in the region “may be locked up… but their voices were heard today at the United Nations”.
Maleeha Lodhi told reporters after the August 16 Security Council consultations, which focused on India’s recent decisions on Jammu and Kashmir, that “this is the first and not the last step” and “It will only end when justice is done to the people of Jammu and Kashmir”.
“This is the first time in over 50 years that this issue has been deliberated upon by the Security Council,” Ms. Lodhi said. “I think this meeting nullifies India’s claim that Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter for India.”
The Security Council took no action during the closed door meeting, which was called for by China and Pakistan.
Chinese U.N. Ambassador Zhang Jun said council members expressed “serious concern” at the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir including “about the human rights situation there”.
“It’s the general view of members that parties concerned should refrain from taking any unilateral action which might further aggravate the tension there, since the tension is already very tense and very dangerous,” he said.
