ISLAMABAD (REUTERS, DPA) - Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Tuesday (Aug 6) the country was considering an approach to the United Nations Security Council after India stripped its portion of contested Kashmir of special status.
"We will fight it at every forum. We're thinking how we can take it to International Court (of Justice)... to the United Nations Security Council," Khan said in an address to Pakistan's Parliament on Tuesday during a session held to discuss a possible response to Delhi's move.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist party on Monday rushed through a presidential decree to scrap the special status granted to the Indian-ruled part of Kashmir by India's Constitution.
It also moved a Bill proposing the Indian-administered part of the Himalayan region be divided into two regions directly ruled by New Delhi.
Nuclear arch-rivals India and Pakistan both claim Muslim-majority Kashmir in full but rule it in part.
The breathtaking Himalayan region has been disputed by India and Pakistan since 1947. They have fought two of their three wars over the former principality.
Islamabad on Monday called the move illegal and a violation of the United Nations Security Council's resolutions while threatening to exercise "all possible options" against it.
Khan said on Tuesday changing the status of Kashmir would escalate tensions between India and Pakistan, which could lead to a all-out conflict. "No one will be the winner in that case," he warned India.
He also urged world leaders to intervene, saying: "We want the global leadership to take note."
Earlier Tuesday, Pakistan's powerful army chief said after a meeting in the garrison city of Rawalpindi to discuss the move that the military "firmly stands" by the Kashmiris.
"Pakistan Army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end. We are prepared and shall go to any extent to fulfil our obligations in this regard," General Qamar Javed Bajwa said, in a tweet sent by a military spokesman after the meeting.
On Tuesday, an estimated 500 people demonstrated in Muzaffarabad, the largest city in Pakistani-held Kashmir, with more protests expected in major cities across the country.
