Pakistan on Tuesday urged the United Nations to step in to “defuse tensions” with India in the wake of a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pulwama on February 14, The Express Tribune reported.

Forty personnel of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed in the attack, for which Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed claimed responsibility. A day after the attack, India revoked Pakistan’s Most Favoured Nation tag, and said it would isolate Islamabad globally. Islamabad has refuted allegations that it was connected with the attack.

“It is imperative to take steps for de-escalation,” Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in a letter to the UN Secretary General António Guterres. “It is with a sense of urgency that I draw your attention to the deteriorating security situation in our region resulting from the threat of use of force against Pakistan by India”.

Qureshi said the attack was “ostensibly and even by Indian accounts” carried out by a Kashmiri resident. He reiterated it was absurd to attribute the attack to Pakistan even before investigations.

“For domestic political reasons, India has deliberately ratcheted up its hostile rhetoric against Pakistan,” Qureshi said. The foreign minister in an interview has raised concerns in the letter over the “negative tactics” used by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, reported Geo News.

Qureshi told the UN that India has hinted at abandoning the Indus Waters Treaty, adding that it would be a grievous error. The Indus Waters Treaty, drawn up in September 1960 and brokered by the World Bank, lays down rules for how the water of the Indus and its tributaries that flow in both the countries will be used.

Qureshi said India must be asked to conduct an open and credible investigation on the terror attack. “You may also consider asking India to refrain from further escalating the situation and enter into dialogue with Pakistan and the Kashmiris to calm the situation down,” Qureshi wrote in the letter to the UN chief.

Pakistan has repeatedly asked the United Nations to intervene to resolve the Kashmir dispute. India has rejected third party intervention in the dispute and has maintained that all outstanding matters in Indo-Pakistan ties should be resolved bilaterally, PTI reported.