UNITED NATIONS, Mar 10 (APP): UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is considering to hold talks with officials from India and Pakistan on the deteriorating situation in Kashmir and will see how things can be improved on the ground, his spokesperson has said.
“He will talk to different officials if it helps move the process along. That’s something that he is looking into,” Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq said while responding to a question whether Guterres, who took over as UN chief in January, has come to any conclusion about how to deal with the situation in Kashmir.
“Beyond that, I have nothing new to say about the issue,” he added.
Asked if there is a timeline as to when the UN chief will talk to leaders from the two countries, Farhan Haq said as with any number of long-running situations, there are ‘a lot of complex issues’ that need to be examined. The UN chief “will look into the issue, and certainly, he will try to see what can be done to improve the situation on the ground,” Haq said.
On January 6, the secretary-general offered to play a role of an honest broker between Pakistan and India amid escalating tensions between the two countries.
The UN chief made the offer during a meeting with Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, who gave him an extensive briefing on the situation in Kashmir.
Over 110 people have been killed while more than 14,000 have sustained injuries during the uprising which erupted on July 9, a day after Hizbul Mujahideen commander, Burhan Muzaffar Wani, was martyred by the Indian occupation troops.
More than 750 people have sustained pellet injuries, with a majority of them on the verge of losing eyesight partially or completely.
