ISLAMABAD, DEC 28, (DNA) – Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said that the role of United Nations Monitoring Observer Group in India and Pakistan is of utmost importance in ensuring peaceful environment along the Line of Control.

The foreign secretary gave the statement in an interview to Russian news agency Sputnik. He said that the recent escalation of conflict along the LoC ‘may lead to strategic miscalculations’. In wake of violations, the role of the international community inevitably becomes all the more necessary to maintain regional peace, he said.

Aizaz Chaudhry said that the ceasefire violations can be monitored independently by the UN group as well.

The foreign secretary said that Pakistan has always cooperated with the observer group, although India does not extend the same level of cooperation to the UNMOGIP when it comes to its side of the border.

He said that India violated the ceasefire along the LoC ‘more than 310 times since September’ and across the border firing claimed 46 lives on Pakistani side.

Tensions between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours have escalated following the Uri attack in Indian occupied Kashmir. Without providing any proof India blamed Pakistan for the attack, in which 19 Indian soldiers were killed. India used the attack to divert attention from the atrocities being committed in occupied Kashmir where since July over 115 Kashmiris have been martyred.

Pakistan has raised the issue of Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir on international forums calling on world leaders to play their role in a putting an end to human rights violations in the region. Pakistan has also called for implementation of UN resolutions to resolve the Kashmir dispute.=DNA

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