NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to scrap Kashmir autonomy faces a test on Friday before the UN Security Council, after India's Supreme Court postponed a lawsuit demanding the government lift its restrictions over the past 12 days amid a military escalation that has killed both sides.
The Security Council is expected to hold a closed session after China backed a Pakistani call to discuss India's decision on its part of Kashmir.
The Security Council last met to discuss the situation in the Himalayan region of Kashmir in 1965.
"Pakistan will not be the cause of conflict, but India should not interpret our restraint as weakness," Foreign Minister Shah Masood Qureshi said in a Security Council speech on Tuesday. "If India chooses to resort to force again, Pakistan will have to respond with all its might, in self-defense," he said.
The news agency "Bloomberg" US that the Supreme Court of India, headed by Ranjan Gogwa, postponed a petition challenging the strict restrictions imposed by the Indian government in the region.
Another lawsuit on the constitutionality of the abolition of state autonomy was also postponed by the abolition of an article in the Constitution by the Government, a move taken without the approval of the Parliament of Jammu and Kashmir.
Fascism and racism
For his part, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan stepped up his attack on the Indian government after its recent decisions on Jammu and Kashmir, describing it as "fascism and racism."
Khan said in a Twitter account on Friday morning that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, "the fascist Hindu racism, should know that while armies, militants and terrorists can be defeated by superior forces, history tells us that when a nation unites and fights for freedom and does not fear death, No force can prevent it from achieving its goal. "
"For this reason, the exclusionary doctrine of the Modi government, which seeks to consolidate Hindus' hegemony, with its fascist methods in Jammu and Kashmir, will fail miserably in its attempt to quell the Kashmiri struggle for freedom," he added in a second tweet.
The Pakistani prime minister has repeatedly attacked India's recent decision to deny Jammu and Kashmir its self-rule and warned of a possible war between New Delhi and Islamabad.
The Pakistani army announced today that one of its soldiers was killed by Indian fire in the disputed Kashmir region while performing his mission in the Line of Control in Kashmir.
On Thursday, five Indian soldiers, three Pakistani military personnel and two civilians were killed in clashes in the Line of Control separating Pakistan and India.
Last week, New Delhi-controlled part of the province saw widespread protests against the Indian government over the abolition of two articles of the constitution, one of which grants self-rule to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
The other gives Kashmiris alone in the state the right to permanent residence as well as the right to employment in government departments and property and to receive educational grants.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday praised the "pioneering" step of abolishing self-rule in India-controlled Kashmir.
The dispute over the territory between Pakistan and India began since they gained independence from Britain in 1947, where they fought three wars in 1948, 1965 and 1971, which killed nearly 70 thousand people from both sides.