What are UN Security Council members urging India and Pakistan to do to resolve the issue?
The story so far: On Friday, August 16, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held a “closed consultation” meeting on the situation in Kashmir. On August 5, India had ended the special status of the State of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) under Article 370 and Article 35A, carving it into two Union Territories: J&K and Ladakh. The Valley was put on lockdown, and mainstream political leaders were taken into custody. Both India and Pakistan were kept out of the UNSC meeting on Friday. The last time ‘The India-Pakistan Question’ was taken up by the UNSC was in December 1971 when India and Pakistan fought a war leading to the creation of Bangladesh. It had been discussed during the 1965 war too when Indian and Pakistani forces clashed in Kashmir and the western borders. After the abrogation of Article 370 last Monday, Pakistan wrote to the UNSC. China, a permanent member of the UNSC, and an ally of Pakistan, sought a meeting of the UNSC to discuss the developments in Kashmir.
What did the UNSC discussion throw up?
The UNSC has not yet put out a statement, but after the meeting India insisted that issues around Article 370 and special status to J&K were an internal matter. The Indian Ambassador to the UN, Syed Akbaruddin, accused Pakistan and China of attempting to impart greater significance to the meeting than was warranted. One question that has been raised is about the situation in the Kashmir Valley now. Is the ground reality in the formerly undivided princely Sstate of J&K similar to that of the late 1940s when key UN resolutions, including the UNSC Resolution 47 recommending plebiscite, were passed?
When did the UNSC first discuss J&K?
The Kashmir issue at the UN debuted on January 1, 1948 as India urged the UNSC to discuss the conflict that had erupted three months earlier when Pakistan sent irregulars, tribals and camouflaged soldiers into Kashmir prompting the Maharaja of the princely Indian State to accede to India. The submission of India detailing the violence unleashed by the irregulars on the local population and infrastructure became the foundation upon which the “Jammu and Kashmir Question” was created at the UNSC. The title was changed on January 22, 1948 to “The India-Pakistan Question”. From its origin till 1971, the topic featured prominently at the UNSC especially when both countries clashed.