Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said there was no question of talking to New Delhi after it revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, and raised the possibility of a conventional war with India that could go beyond the subcontinent.
“So that’s why we have approached the United Nations, we are approaching every international forum, that they must act right now,” he said. Mr Khan said he “absolutely” believes war with India could be a possibility. “…this is a potential disaster that would go way beyond the Indian subcontinent,” Mr Khan said. “I am a pacifist, I am anti-war, I believe that wars do not solve any problems,” he told news channel Al Jazeera.
“When two nuclear-armed countries fight, if they fight a conventional war, there is every possibility that it is going to end up into nuclear war. The unthinkable,” he said. “If say Pakistan, God forbid, we are fighting a conventional war, we are losing, and if a country is stuck between the choice: either you surrender or you fight till death for your freedom, I know Pakistanis will fight to death for their freedom,” he said.
Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter of India and the government has strongly criticised Pakistan for making “irresponsible statements” and provocative anti-India rhetoric over the issue.