India’s Modi tells Trump ‘Kashmir is under control’

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi told him that situation in Jammu and Kashmir was “under control”.

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France, Trump said: “We spoke last night about Kashmir. The Prime Minister [Modi] really feels he has it [Kashmir] under control.”

Trump said that he shares good relations with leaders of Pakistan and India.

“I am here... I have very good relationship with both of them but I think they can do it themselves,” the U.S. president said.

“They [India] speak with Pakistan and they will be able to do something [about Kashmir] that will be very good,” Trump added.

Trump earlier offered mediation on Kashmir between New Delhi and Islamabad.

Ever since India scrapped special provisions guaranteed to the disputed Jammu and Kashmir under the Indian constitution, Pakistan has sought international intervention on Kashmir under the UN Security Council resolutions.

Jammu and Kashmir is under near-complete lockdown since Aug. 5 after India scrapped the special provisions, according to several rights group, including the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

India blocked communications and imposed strict restrictions to thwart any rebellion while political leaders in the region have been detained as the right groups repeatedly called on New Delhi to lift the restrictions and release political detainees.

U.S. also had recently expressed concerned about detentions in Kashmir and urged respect for individual rights and discussions with those in affected communities.

India’s Premier Modi, on his part, said that issues between India and Pakistan were “bilateral”.

“[We] don’t want to give pain to any third country. We can discuss and resolve all issues bilaterally,” Modi told reporters.

“India and Pakistan were together before 1947 and I am confident that we can discuss our problems and solve them together," he added.

Modi is attending the G7 summit on a personal invitation from French President Emmanuel Macron.

- A disputed region

From 1954 until Aug. 5, 2019, Jammu and Kashmir had special provisions under which it enacted its own laws. The provisions also protected the region's citizenship law, which barred outsiders from settling in and owning land in the territory.

India and Pakistan both hold Kashmir in parts and claim it in full. China also controls part of the contested region, but it is India and Pakistan who have fought two wars over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights groups, thousands of people have been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.