US president, Pakistani premier discuss Kashmir

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) - Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday telephoned U.S. President Donald Trump to discuss the deteriorating situation in disputed Jammu and Kashmir region.

“The Prime Minister (Khan) and the U.S President Donald Trump had a detailed discussion on ongoing situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir. The Prime Minister presented Pakistan’s stance to the U.S. president, and conveyed our concern over situation in Kashmir and recent steps [taken by India], which pose threat to the regional peace,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in a televised statement.

The contact came minutes before the UN Security Council’s (NSCC) closed-door meeting to discuss the deteriorating situation in Jammu and Kashmir region following India’s scrapping of decades-long special status to the disputed valley.

The two leaders, Qureshi said, agreed to “constantly” stay in contact over the matter.

He said Islamabad had reached out to the heads and the foreign ministers of four out of five permanent UN Security Council members -- U.S, China, Russia, and UK -- to discuss the Kashmir situation. “ They are familiar with Pakistan’s point of view [on Jammu Kashmir]”, he added.

“Efforts are being made to get in contact with the French president on the issue”, he maintained.

Trump and Khan, according to Qureshi, also discussed the ongoing reconciliation process in war-raked Afghanistan.

“Pakistan has taken step via-a-vis Afghan peace process. We were committed to the peace process yesterday and we are committed to that today as well,” Qureshi said.

Already mounting tensions between the nuclear-armed Pakistan and India have further flared up following the scrapping of the special status of picturesque Himalayan valley.

Kashmiri leaders and citizens fear this step is an attempt by the Indian government to change demography of the Muslim-majority state, where some groups have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.

In related developments, Pakistan has also downgraded diplomatic relations with India, suspended trade and expelled the Indian high commissioners.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965 and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir, in addition to a three-week long Kargil skirmish in 1999.

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