India’s move to build wall along Working Boundary unacceptable: Pakistan

UNITED NATIONS (Staff Report) – Pakistan has called India’s plan to build a wall along the 197-kilometer Working Boundary near Sialkot an “unacceptable breach” of UN Security Council Resolutions aimed at peacefully settling the Kashmir dispute, and demanded that the 15-member body ask New Delhi to refrain from going ahead with the project.

In a letter to the President of the Security Council for September, Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, Pakistani Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said the 10 meter-high and 135 feet-wide wall would bring about a “material change” in the situation on the ground, which, she said, was not allowed under the relevant Council resolutions.

Pakistan believes that the wall would create a fait accompli aimed at creating a physical and psychological barrier for the people of Jammu & Kashmir, who are yet to exercise their right to self-determination, as enshrined in Security Council Resolutions, Lodhi wrote.

“We have already formally lodged a protest with the Indian Government,” the Pakistani envoy said. “We hope that the Security Council will also take note of this serious situation and urge India to refrain from undertaking actions that could bring about a material change in the situation on the ground, in violation of Security Council resolutions.

“The State of Jammu & Kashmir is internationally recognized disputed territory with a number of United Nations Security Council resolutions on the official status of Jammu & Kashmir awaiting implementation.”