Pakistan: Hindu settlements in Kashmir violate UN resolutions

(MENAFN- Arab News) ISLAMABAD: An Indian plan to resettle tens of thousands of Hindus in new townships in the disputed Muslim-majority region of Kashmir is a violation of UN Security Council resolutions a Pakistani government spokeswoman said on Thursday.
The divided Himalayan region is claimed by both Hindu-majority India and Islamic Pakistan and the nuclear-armed neighbors have gone to war two times over the territory since independence in 1947.
Pakistan has long pressed for the implementation of decades-old UN resolutions calling for a ballot for the region to decide its future. India says the United Nations has no role in Kashmir.
India's nationalist government said in early April it planned to resettle tens of thousands of Hindus in three new townships in its part of Kashmir. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said that was unacceptable.
'Any effort to create special dedicated townships or zones or any other step to alter the demographic make-up of Jammu and Kashmir is in violation of the UN Security Council resolutions' the spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam told a regular briefing.
'We have already seen how the people of Jammu and Kashmir are resisting it' she said.
She did not elaborate but was apparently referring to recent protests in Indian Kashmir.
Between 200000 and 300000 Hindus are estimated to have fled Kashmir after an armed revolt against New Delhi's rule erupted in 1989.