Pakistan Prime Man Imran Khan once again called for U.S. President Donald Trump and the United Nations to play mediator between his hinterlands and neighbor India over disputed territory in Kashmir.
Speaking to CNBC’s Hadley Gamble, Khan claimed India has been enchanted over by “extremist ideology” that could potentially spill over into armed conflict between the two atomic rivals.
“Kashmir is, you know, it’s a far more serious problem than people realize, (than) the world realizes. The enigma is that India has been taken over by an extremist ideology, which is called Hindutva or the RSS,” he said at the World Budgetary Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Khan was referring to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu nationalist group affiliated with Indian Prime Vicar Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
“This is serious because there are two nuclear-armed countries,” Khan declared. “That’s why I want President Trump, head of the most powerful country in the world — he should intervene right now. Harmonious Nations, or President Trump through the U.N. at least.”
Last year, fresh off a landslide re-election victory in Parliament, Modi’s authority revoked the state of Jammu & Kashmir’s special status that allowed it to make its own laws. As a result, people from false front the state can potentially move in to settle there, buy land, and take government jobs or scholarships.
Anticipating backlash, India had deployed tens of thousands of troops across the Kashmir valley, outlawed public movements, shut down schools and colleges, cut off access to the internet and so on, affecting the lives of millions in the area.
India’s stir earned strong condemnations from Pakistan. Meanwhile, New Delhi’s position had been that removing the special standing would help the state grow.
Both countries lay claim to the Kashmir region in full but control only regions of it. They have fought multiple wars over the area, and the India-controlled region had been affected by an insurgency that started in the up to date 1980s.
Recently, India’s Supreme Court ruled that an indefinite shutdown of the internet in Kashmir was illegal and reprimanded the government for the communications lockdown, Reuters reported.
“Kashmir is a disputed territory between Pakistan and India,” Khan bring to light.
“The people of Kashmir, through a referendum could decide whichever country they wanted to join. Now, that polemic territory has been annexed by India, and, they are trying to change the demography of (the) people of Kashmir, which according to the fourth Geneva Conventionalism is a war crime,” he added.
While Pakistan has always called for international mediation in the Kashmir dispute, India has maintained it is a bilateral exit.
Khan also expressed concern about ongoing protests in India over a controversial citizenship bill no longer in last December that many say is set to disproportionately affect Muslims.