Daily Times

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations and United States have urged India and Pakistan to exercise restraint after New Delhi carried out a series of strikes inside Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).

Amid anger in India over a recent assault on one of its army bases in Held Kashmir, officials said troops had conducted “surgical strikes” several kilometres inside AJK to prevent attacks being planned on major Indian cities.

“The United Nations calls on the government(s) of India and Pakistan to exercise restraint and encourage them to continue their efforts to resolve their differences peacefully and through dialogue,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Pakistan said two of its soldiers had been killed and nine more wounded in what it described as a small arms fire and dismissed the talk of surgical strikes as an “illusion” designed to whip up “media hype”.

UN officials are following the increase in tensions in Kashmir “with great concern”, said Dujarric. Meanwhile, the United States called for “de-escalation of the political discourse” between India and Pakistan amid the war of words between the two nations over Uri attack. “What we have said it many times from the podium – is we want to see closer and normalisation of relationship between India and Pakistan,” State Department Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner told reporters.