On Monday, the United Nations expressed its hope to “launch a low-profile dialogue between Pakistan and India.”
This came in a press conference held by the spokesman for the Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, at the United Nations Permanent Headquarters in New York.
Dujarric was responding to journalists’ questions about the exchange of sharp criticism of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi during their speeches to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday and Saturday.
“We have heard the words of the Prime Minister of Pakistan and India, and despite the tone of their statements, we remain hopeful that a dialogue can be launched between the two countries, perhaps in a place far from the spotlight,” the Secretary-General’s spokesperson said.
Imran Khan said, in a videotaped speech, Friday, to world leaders and heads of state participating in the meetings of the General Assembly: “India is now ruled by the worst and most widespread form of Islamophobia…its fascist regime has unleashed panic and violence against the Muslim community in India, where the mob is perpetrating Of the cow guards, repeated massacres of Muslims.
While the Indian Prime Minister responded in his speech to the General Assembly the following day, Saturday, that “reactionary countries that use terrorism as a political tool must realize that it poses a threat to them as well,” in reference to Pakistan.
Pakistani-Indian relations witness tension, from time to time, against the backdrop of the dispute between them over the territory of “Kashmir”.
The name “Jammu and Kashmir” is given to the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, and it includes groups that have been fighting since 1989, against what it considers an “Indian occupation” of its regions.
The region’s residents have been demanding independence from India and accession to Pakistan since the two countries gained independence from Britain in 1947, and Islamabad and New Delhi divided the Muslim-majority region.
On August 5, 2019, the Indian government repealed Article 370 of the constitution, which guarantees self-government in Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir, and then divides it into two regions administered by the federal government.
