Washington: While conceding that he has not received much traction over his shrill campaign on Kashmir, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has said he is confident that the international community ultimately will take note of the situation in the Valley.
In an interview to CNN, Khan, the self-designated ambassador of Kashmir, continued with his anti-India rhetoric and said there was "no question" of him meeting his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi after the latter's government ended the special status of Jammu and Kashmir last month.
"There's no question of me meeting Prime Minister Modi for what he's done in Kashmir," Khan said.
But India has said that there is no question of resumption of talks with Pakistan unless it takes concrete steps to stop cross-border terrorism.
On being asked why he thinks there has been no international uproar on Kashmir, Khan said world leaders were looking at India as a market of more than a billion people.
"A lot of leaders didn't realise this. But I think even the ones who realise look upon India as a market for 1.2 (sic) billion people and trade and so on. And this is the sad thing, (valuing) material over the human," Khan rued.
The prime minister said he had apprised top leaders of the world about the situation in Kashmir during his trip to New York to attend the annual session of the UN General Assembly.
Responding to a question, Khan said that Modi did not want any international mediation on Kashmir. "He keeps saying it's a bilateral relation. When we try to talk to him, he says it's a unilateral issue. So, we go around in circles," he said.
"But eventually, and this is my belief, this is what I think I've achieved from my trip here, I believe that the international community will move in. They will have to because this is going to become a flash point," Khan said, reiterating his warning to the international community.
Responding to a question on India's assertions that Pakistan is mobilising terrorists across the Line of Control to send them to Kashmir and other parts of India to carry out terrorist activities, Khan said he has specifically told Pakistanis that anyone going into Kashmir will be an enemy of the country and an enemy of Kashmiris.
"It's the first time two nuclear-armed countries are face-to-face. If this goes like it happened in February, I mean, we immediately return the pilot when we shot down the plane because we didn't want any escalation," he said.
"In six years India has changed and I fear it is going to change even more rapidly. That is why I call it appeasement. The world has to take a stand," he said.
India ended Jammu and Kashmir's special status by abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution on August 5. The decision evoked strong reactions from Pakistan, which downgraded diplomatic ties and expelled the Indian ambassador.
Pakistan has been trying to internationalise the Kashmir issue but New Delhi has asserted the abrogation of Article 370 was its "internal matter". India has also said there is no scope for any third party mediation on the Kashmir issue.
(With PTI inputs)
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