UN warns India to refrain from changing Kashmir's legal status

UN Secretary-General is also concerned over reports of restrictions on the Indian-occupied Kashmir.

UNITED NATIONS (Dunya News/AFP) - The United Nations on Thursday expressed deep concern over the abolition of occupied Kashmir‘s special status with abrogation of the Article 370 and warned India to refrain from changing its legal status.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres called Thursday on India and Pakistan "to refrain from taking steps that could affect the status of occupied and Kashmir." "The Secretary-General has been following the situation in Jammu and Kashmir with concern and makes an appeal for maximum restraint," his spokesperson added.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has expressed concern over the situation in IoK saying that India should refrain from taking action that affects the legal status of Jammu and Kashmir whereas his spokesperson asserted, "The Secretary-General is also concerned over reports of restrictions on the Indian-occupied Kashmir, which could exacerbate the human rights situation in the region."

Secretary-General UN António Guterres gave a clear message to India that the solution to occupied Kashmir is possible through the UN Charter and Security Council resolutions.

The Secretary-General also recalled the 1972 Agreement on bilateral relations between India and Pakistan, also known as the Simla Agreement, which states that the final status of Jammu and Kashmir is to be settled by peaceful means, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.

India‘s Hindu nationalist government stripped the disputed region of its autonomy earlier this week in a move that sent shock waves through South Asia and has seen the restive area come under military lockdown.

Internet and telephone connections in Kashmir have been cut since Monday and a curfew imposed as the authorities feared trouble when the decision was announced.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s administration rushed through a presidential decree on Monday to ditch the Muslim-majority region‘s constitutionally-guaranteed status.

Parliament also passed a law splitting the state into two territories. Kashmir is also claimed by Pakistan, which on Wednesday expelled India‘s ambassador and suspended all trade in protest at the move.

Modi has said nuclear rival Pakistan used the special status "as a weapon against the country to inflame the passions of some people" against the Indian state.

Tens of thousands of people have died in a three-decade-old insurgency in Kashmir. India and Pakistan have fought two wars over the Himalayan region.