ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan called on the UN Security Council on Tuesday to hold a session to discuss India's decision to abolish Jammu and Kashmir's autonomy and the president's optimism that the appropriate decision would be made.
Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Chabotowicz, whose country chairs the Security Council, said the council had received a letter from Pakistan calling for a meeting on the situation in Kashmir. "I think the Security Council will discuss this issue and take the appropriate decision," he said.
"We hope that both countries will be able to reach a mutually beneficial solution. The tense relations between India and Pakistan have a negative impact on the entire South Asian region and could lead to serious political, security and economic consequences," he said.
"Pakistan will not do what provokes a conflict. But India should not mistakenly believe that restraint is a weakness," Foreign Minister Shah Masood Qureshi said in the letter to the Security Council.
"If India again chooses to resort to the use of force, Pakistan will have to respond in self-defense with all its capabilities," he said, adding that his country was requesting the meeting "given the serious consequences."
New Delhi announced on the fifth of this month that it would abolish article 370 of the Constitution, which gives autonomy to the so-called state of Jammu and Kashmir (Indian part of the region), prompting Islamabad to expel the Indian ambassador and suspend bilateral trade agreements.
Indian authorities have cut off telephone calls, Internet and television broadcasts in Kashmir and imposed restrictions on movement and assembly.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been demanding independence from India and joining Pakistan since the two countries gained independence from Britain in 1947, where the conflict over the region has led to two of the three wars between the two arch-neighbors.