By: Newsdesk Team
City of London Newsroom
Pakistan has said it will take the Kashmir dispute to the International Court of Justice, in a move brought about since India revoked the special autonomous status of the part of Kashmir that it administers. Pakistan has reacted to that decision by cutting trade and transport links and expelling India's ambassador.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a phone call to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has told him that the issue was one "For India and Pakistan to resolve between themselves, ideally through dialogue." with French President Emmanuel Macron scheduled to discuss the crisis with Mr Modi when they meet in Paris later this week.
Kashmir, which both Pakistan and India joint rule but claim in full has seen decades of sporadic turmoil.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said "We have decided to take the Kashmir case
to the International Court of Justice." "The decision was taken after considering all legal aspects." He added that the case would centre on alleged human rights violations by India in Muslim-majority Kashmir which India vehemently denies.
Kashmir is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th
century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the
Pir Panjal Range. Today, it denotes a larger area that includes the Indian-administered territory
of Jammu and Kashmir (which includes the divisions Jammu, Kashmir Valley, and Ladakh), the
Pakistani-administered territories of Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, and Chinese-administered
territories of Aksai Chin and the Trans-Karakoram Tract
Article 370; the constitutional provision granting Indian-administered Kashmir its special status, was revoked earlier this month. The area has now been downgraded from a federal state and split into two union territories ruled by Delhi.
Predicting a backlash, Delhi also launched a security lockdown and communications blackout in the part Kashmir it administers. Despite this, there have been frequent protests and some have turned violent with analysts at the Associated Press news agency suggesting that at least 2,300 people, most of them young men, have been detained during the lockdown.
