UN monitors in Kashmir safe: Spokesperson
United Nations, May 8 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) UN ceasefire monitors in Kashmir and in the Pakistan-occupied area are safe and accounted for after the Indian missile strikes on “terror infrastructure” and the Pakistan shelling, according to a UN spokesperson.
“We checked with our colleagues in peacekeeping, and they said everybody was accounted for, and everybody was safe,” Stephanie Tremblay, the UN Secretary-General’s associate spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Formally known as the UN Military Observers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) has 44 military personnel and 75 civilian staff posted on both sides of the Line of Control (LOC) in Kashmir.
Now headed by Mexican Major General Ramon Guardado Sanchez, UNMOGIP began operations in 1949 monitoring the fragile ceasefire in Kashmir under a UN Security Council mandate.
India has called the UNMOGIP redundant and called for its termination.
The Resistant Front, an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terrorist organisation, owned responsibility for the religiously targeted massacre of 26 people in Pahalgam, a tourist spot in Kashmir.
India launched a missile attack in retaliation, hitting nine places in Pakistan and Kashmir territory it occupies that New Delhi identified as terrorist locations.
Pakistan shelled India across the Line Of Control killing at least 10 people, and downing three Indian jets, according to media reports.
On Tuesday night, Pakistan served notice that it was preparing for further attacks on India, telling the UN Security Council that it reserves the right to hit back.
Earlier on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres remains “very concerned” about India’s military operation against Pakistan, saying “the world cannot afford a confrontation between the two countries,” according to his Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
“He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries,” Dujarric said shortly after India announced missile strikes into Pakistan and territory it occupies in Kashmir.
“The Secretary-General is very concerned about the Indian military operations across the Line of Control and international border,” he added.
India’s Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday that it launched “Operation Sindoor” hitting nine places in Pakistan and the part of Kashmir it occupies.
“Focused strikes were carried out on nine #terrorist infrastructure sites” in a “precise and restrained response to the barbaric #PahalgamTerrorAttack,” it said in a post on X.
Earlier, the Indian Army said that it has hit nine locations deep inside Pakistan in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack.
“A little while ago, the Indian Armed Forces launched ‘Operation Sindoor’, hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed,” the Army in a press statement said.
The Indian Army also posted on its official X handle, “Justice is Served. Jai Hind.”
“Altogether, nine (9) sites have been targeted. Our actions have been focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature. No Pakistani military facilities have been targeted. India has demonstrated considerable restraint in the selection of targets and the method of execution,” the Army said.
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