War not an option to deal with Kashmir issue: Pak FM Qureshi

Team Udayavani, Aug 31, 2019, 5:28 PM IST

Islamabad: Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that war is not an option to deal with the Kashmir issue amidst fresh Indo-Pak tensions over New Delhi revoking Jammu and Kashmir’s special status.

His remarks came at a time when Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been repeatedly threatening the possibility of a nuclear war with India over Kashmir after his efforts to internationalise the matter failed to gain any traction.

Asserting that abrogation of Article 370 was its internal matter, India has strongly criticised Pakistan for making “irresponsible statements” and provocative anti-India rhetoric over issues internal to it.

In an interview to BBC Urdu published on Saturday, Qureshi said Pakistan never followed an aggressive policy and always preferred peace, adding that the current government of Pakistan has repeatedly offered India to start talks because the two nuclear-armed neighbours cannot take the risk of going on a war.

War was not option to deal with the issue of Kashmir, the Pakistani foreign minister emphasised. He reiterated that Kashmir is an international issue and not just a bilateral affair between Pakistan and India.

Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after India abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories.