Kashmir | Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - The head of the Pakistan parliamentary delegation and former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari called on the international community Friday to engage with India and emphasize that military confrontation is not a solution to the Kashmir dispute or terrorism, stressing that dialogue is the only way forward.

BRUSSELS: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto has restated that the Kashmir dispute resolution is important to regional peace, requesting the United Nations to execute its mandates on the issue, ARY News reported. In Brussels, while speaking at a European think tank, Bilawal Bhutto emphasised that India has consistently ignored international resolutions, misrepresenting Kashmir […]

United States President Donald Trump on Thursday once again offered to arbitrate the Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India, echoing comments made by the US State Department a day prior. Trump had offered to work on the Kashmir issue after he brokered a ceasefire between the two nuclear powers following their most intense military confrontation in decades. In a message lauding the countries’ leaders for achieving peace, he remarked, “I will work with both of you to see if, after a ‘thousand years’, a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir.” Responding to a question on the steps the US plans to take in the wake of Trump’s offer, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce noted, “[Trump] has been the only one to bring certain people to the table to have conversations that nobody thought was possible,” remaining hopeful that the Kashmir issue can also get resolved. Fielding questions after a bill-signing ceremony on Thursday, the US president said that he “stopped a war” between Pakistan and India. “Ev...

LONDON/ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s high level delegation in London has urged the United Kingdom to support the implementation of UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir.

US Department of State on Wednesday reiterated US President Donald Trump’s resolve to work on the Kashmir dispute, saying each step that he takes “is made to solve generational differences between countries”. Donald Trump had offered to work on the Kashmir issue after he brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan after the two nations’ most intense military confrontation in decades. In a message lauding the countries’ leaders for achieving peace, he remarked, “I will work with both of you to see if, after a ‘thousand years’, a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir.” Responding to a question on the steps US plans to take in the wake of Trump’s offer, State Department’s spokesperson Tammy Bruce during a White House press briefing noted, “So, while I can’t speak to his plans, the world knows his nature, and I can’t speak to any details of what he might have in that regard,” adding that the White House would have plenty to say about the matter. She further said, “[Trump] has been the only one to brin...

The Foreign Office on Friday firmly rejected the “baseless and misleading remarks” made by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his first visit to the Indian-held Kashmir after the Pahalgam attack. The indian premier arrived in occupied valley today to open a strategic railway line. According to Indian news media outlets, Modi, during his visit, said that Pakistan attacked ’insaniyat’ and Kashmiriyat’ (humanity and the Kashmiri identity) in Pahalgam. The Indian premier alleged that Pakistan was “also the enemy of poor’s bread and butter”. He warned that anyone trying to derail the development in Indian-held Kashmir would have to “face Narendra Modi first”. Responding to the Indian premier’s remarks, the foreign office today said: “Pakistan firmly rejects the baseless and misleading remarks made by the prime minister of India regarding the situation in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.” It added that such statements represented a “deliberate attempt to deflect international attention from the grav...

The Foreign Office on Friday firmly dismissed recent remarks by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, labelling them as baseless and misleading.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to make his first visit to occupied Kashmir since the conflict between the country and Pakistan began last month, inaugurating a ‘strategic railway’ service to the mountainous region, his office said on Wednesday. Modi will visit the valley on Friday to open the Chenab Bridge, a 1,315-metre-long steel and concrete span that connects two mountains with an arch 359m above the river below. “The project establishes all-weather, seamless rail connectivity between the Kashmir Valley and the rest of the country,” the Indian Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement. Modi is expected to flag off a special train. Last month, nuclear-armed India and Pakistan fought an intense four-day conflict, their worst standoff since 1999, before a US-brokered ceasefire was agreed on May 10. This military confrontation took place after New Delhi, without evidence, blamed Islamabad for backing terrorists who killed 26 tourists in occupied Kashmir’s Pahalgam and launched a series of airstr...

Director General Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR), Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, has firmly reiterated that Kashmir is an integral part of Pakistan and will remain so.

SINGAPORE - General Sahir Shamshad Mirza, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee (CJCSC) has called for the urgent resolution of the Kashmir dispute, warning that continued tensions with India threaten regional peace and security.

MIRPUR - Azad Jammu Kashmir Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwar ul Haq, while highlighting the dangers of the unresolved Kashmir issue, has said that the threat of war would continue to hover over South Asia unless the longstanding issue of Kashmir is addressed in its historical perspective.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday reiterated Pakistan’s willingness to hold talks with India on the Kashmir dispute and counterterrorism, stressing New Delhi wanted the same “in all sincerity”. The prime minister participated in the Pakistan-Turkiye-Azerbaijan Trilateral Summit alongside presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ilham Aliyev. The meeting comes as the premier continued his tour to friendly countries to appreciate their support for Pakistan during the recent conflict with India. Speaking at the summit, PM Shehbaz said: “I have said in all humility that we want peace in the region […] and that requires talks on the table on issues which need urgent attention and amicable resolution, that is the issue of Kashmir according to the resolutions of the United Nations and the Security Council and as per the aspirations of the people of Kashmir.” The premier also touched upon the issue of terrorism: “I have said in all earnest that if India wants to talk on countering terrorism in sincerity of purpos...

A high-profile roundtable conference convened in Muzaffarabad has called on the international community to reengage meaningfully with the protracted Kashmir conflict, warning that continued inaction poses a grave threat to regional peace and stability.

LAHORE - The British Parliament recently released a comprehensive 42-page research report on the Kashmir issue, warning that the dispute could lead to a nuclear war between Pakistan and India.

SRINAGAR: Military veterans will be redeployed as security guards in India-occupied Kashmir, New Delhi said on Saturday, a week after reaching a ceasefire with Islamabad. The government of the occupied state in Srinagar approved a “proposal for mobilising ex-servicemen (ESM) to safeguard vital infrastructure”, according to a government press release. Around 4,000 veterans have been “identified” as non-combatant volunteers, out of which 435 have licensed personal weapons, it said. This will help by “significantly enhancing the capacity to respond effectively to localised security situations”, the government added. Veterans will work in “static guard” roles, focusing on “presence-based deterrence and local coordination”. India already has an estimated half a million soldiers permanently deployed in held Kashmir. But last year, thousands of additional troops, including special forces, were deployed across the occupied territory’s mountainous south following a series of deadly attacks that had left more than 50 s...

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar, has reiterated that lasting peace in South Asia hinges on the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

UNITED NATIONS: A senior Pakistani diplomat told the UN Security Council on Thursday that the “acute” matter of missing persons during armed conflicts was persisting like a “silent crisis”. Absence of such individuals from their loved ones was a wound that never healed, he underscored. “The issue of missing persons is particularly acute in conflict zones and occupied territories from Palestine to occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, said during a discussion. The debate was held in the 15-member Council on the implementation of its Resolution 2474, which addresses the critical issue. “They are fathers who never returned home, mothers separated from their children, young boys who disappeared in the dead of night, and daughters whose fates are sealed in silence,” he said, adding, “Their absence is a wound that never heals, leaving families trapped in an endless cycle of hope and despair.” Envoy calls it ‘a wound that never heals’ The Pakista...

Jamaat-e-Islami Emir Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman on Friday proclaimed that India’s arrogance has been “reduced to dust,” reaffirming the unbreakable bond between Pakistan and Kashmir, calling them “one soul.

ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif, during his telephonic interaction with the UN Secretary General on Wednesday, emphasized that the just resolution of Jammu and Kashmir dispute, in accordance with UN Security Council resolutions, was imperative to ensuring durable peace in South Asia and urged the Secretary General to.

• PM Shehbaz asserts Islamabad ready for both war and peace • Shares with UN chief concerns about inflammatory remarks by Delhi • Pakistan returns Indian border guard ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday invited India to a comprehensive dialogue to address all contentious issues, including the Kashmir dispute and the water distribution, between the two nuclear-armed neighbours. The prime minister floated this offer during his visit to the frontline area of Pasrur Cantonment in Sialkot, where he lauded the armed forces for giving an exemplary response to India under the ‘Operation Bunyanum Marsoos’ conducted in response to Indian strikes inside Pakistan following the Pahalgam incident. Pakistan had struck 26 Indian military facilities, including its airbases, using jets and missiles. He said Pakistan’s response to the Indian attack on May 6-7 caused huge losses to the neighbouring country, in which the Pakistan Air Force downed multiple Indian Rafale aircraft. In reference to the Pakistani str...