Launching a military attack on India not an option, says Imran Khan
2 min read . Updated: 25 Sep 2019, 10:55 PM IST
Premium- Khan’s mission to get India to backtrack on its decision on Kashmir has not yielded results so far
- Khan’s comments came ahead of a major speech at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) later this week
New Delhi: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday night said that launching a military attack against India was not an option, despite rising tensions following the scrapping of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.
Khan, who is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly session, also expressed disappointment at the lack of support from the international community on Kashmir, saying that was because India was a large market of over a billion people.
Khan is expected to launch yet another scathing attack against India for alleged human rights violations in Kashmir when he addresses the UN General Assembly later this week.
According to political analysts, Khan’s comments were part of Pakistan’s strategy to draw international attention on Kashmir and put pressure on India to roll back the revocation of Article 370.
“We can’t attack India. Clearly that’s not an option. Apart from that, we are doing everything possible," Khan told reporters in New York. “To be absolutely frank, I am a bit disappointed by the international community. There is no pressure on Narendra Modi to lift the siege."
“People look upon India as a market of 1 billion people and sadly that’s what is happening—material comes over the human," he said.
Earlier, Pakistani leaders, including Khan, had warned that rising tensions could lead to a war between the two nuclear-armed neighbours, and urged the international community to intervene so that the situation does not spiral out of control.
India has deemed the move to scrap Article 370 as its internal matter and said the situation in Kashmir was slowly returning to normal, and restrictions were being eased off. New Delhi also underlined that the foolproof measures put in place have ensured that lives have not been lost. Closer integration with the rest of India will ensure development of the region, which in turn will help eliminate support to terrorism.
On 27 September, Khan will speak on Kashmir before the UN General Assembly. At least on two occasions since 5 August when India revoked Article 370, Khan had said that he had nominated himself as the ambassador of Kashmir and that he will keep fighting till the world focuses its attention on the region and the alleged atrocities carried out by New Delhi.
“Finally Imran Khan has received a dose of realism," said former foreign secretary Lalit Mansingh. “He has understood that Pakistan’s expectations that India would be roundly censured by the international community for alleged human rights violations were unrealistic."
Khan’s comments also betray a sense of disappointment toward fellow Muslim-majority countries, such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which traditionally supported Islamabad, Mansingh said. Pakistan has not been able to work through the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to censure India. Also, adding to Pakistan’s sense of frustration was the fact that none of the European countries were accepting its arguments about a “genocide" or “ethnic cleansing" in Kashmir, Mansingh said, pointing to Pakistan’s inability to muster support to get a resolution passed through the UN Human Rights Commission. Hence, the reference to materialism and the veiled criticism of western countries, that they view India’s value as a market more than the ethical values like human rights, Mansingh added.
