Pakistan army head warns of change in Kashmir status

KARACHI, Pakistan

Pakistan's army on Sunday warned that any attempt to challenge the disputed status of Indian-administered Kashmir, including any move towards aggression, will be answered with full military might.

"Kashmir is a disputed territory and any attempt to challenge the disputed status including any political cum military thought related to aggression will be responded with full national resolve and military might," army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa said while addressing troops stationed along the Line of Control (LoC) - a de facto border that divides the disputed Himalayan valley between the two nuclear rivals.

"Disturbing the strategic stability matrix in South Asia can lead to dire consequences," he cautioned, referring to New Delhi's scrapping of the disputed region's decades-long special status last August.

Bajwa, who spent Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, with frontline soldiers at the Kashmir border, lauded their "professionalism, operational preparedness, and befitting response" to alleged violations of a 2003 ceasefire agreement by Indian border force.

"Pakistan Army is observing Eid solemnly in solidarity with Kashmiris under Indian occupation particularly since the Aug. 5 illegal, inhuman lockdown, and ensuing atrocities," he went on to say, according to a statement from the army.

India, he added, is trying to shift global attention away from "worsening humanitarian crisis and violence" in Kashmir to the Line of Control by "targeting innocent civilians."

"Pakistan Army is fully alive to the threat spectrum, and will remain ever ready to perform its part in line with national aspirations," he said.

He said he hoped the international community would weigh in to ensure freedom of movement for UN observers inside Indian-administered Kashmir, as ensured by Pakistan in its controlled part of the valley, "so that the tragic consequences of ongoing atrocities and inhuman clampdown inside occupied territory is reported to the United Nations Security Council and the world at large."

"Indian occupying forces can never suppress the valiant spirit of Kashmiris who rightfully await plebiscite under UN resolution. Regardless of ordeal, their struggle is destined to succeed, InshaAllah [God willing]," he concluded.

Disputed region

Kashmir is held by India and Pakistan in parts but claimed by both in full. A small sliver of the region is also controlled by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars – in 1948, 1965 and 1971 – two of them over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have been killed and tortured in the conflict in the region since 1989.