Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Saturday said that war was not an option to deal with the Kashmir issue. (Source: File) Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi Saturday said that war was not an option to deal with the Kashmir issue. (Source: File)

Amid soaring tensions between India and Pakistan over the revocation of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has stated that war is not an option to deal with the Kashmir issue.

Qureshi’s comments came a day after Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, in an op-ed article for The New York Times, warned that a “direct military confrontation” with India “will get ever closer” if the world ignores the Kashmir issue. Khan had said that a nuclear shadow was hovering over South Asia and that India and Pakistan have to “move out of a zero-sum mindset to begin a dialogue on Kashmir.”

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

Rebutting India’s assertion that Kashmir is just a bilateral matter between India and Pakistan, Qureshi said it is an international issue.

The Pakistan Prime Minister has been ratcheting up his attack on India ever since the Narendra Modi-led government revoked Jammu and Kashmir’s special status enjoyed under Article 370. Calling India’s move on Kashmir as “illegal”, Khan said it was a violation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions on Kashmir and the Shimla Agreement between India and Pakistan.

India, however, has maintained the stance that abrogation of Article 370 provisions is its internal matter and has criticised Pakistan for making “irresponsible statements” and provocative anti-India rhetoric over internal issues.

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