On Monday, the United Nations hoped to “launch a low-key dialogue between Pakistan and India.”
This came at a press conference held by the spokesman for the Secretary-General, Stephane Dujarric, at the United Nations Permanent Headquarters in New York.
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Dujarric was responding to reporters’ questions about the exchange of sharp criticism by Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi.
Which happened during their speeches before the United Nations General Assembly on Friday and Saturday.
The Spokesperson for the Secretary-General said, “We have heard the words of the Prime Minister of Pakistan and India.
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.
Imran Khan said in a videotaped speech on Friday to world leaders and heads of state participating in the General Assembly meetings:
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“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 mobs of cow guards are committing repeated massacres of Muslims.”
The Indian Prime Minister responded in his address to the General Assembly the following day on Saturday:
“Reactionary countries that use terrorism as a political tool must realize that it is a threat to them as well,” he said, referring to Pakistan.
Pakistani-Indian relations witness tension from time to time due to the dispute between them over the territory of “Kashmir”.
The name “Jammu and Kashmir” is given to the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, and includes groups that have been fighting since 1989 against what it considers “Indian occupation” of its regions.
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And the region’s residents have been demanding independence from India and joining Pakistan since the two countries gained independence from Britain in 1947, and Islamabad and New Delhi had a Muslim-majority region.
On August 5, 2019, the Indian government repealed Article 370 of the constitution guaranteeing self-government in Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir and then dividing it into two regions administered by the federal government.
