Pakistan President Arif Alvi has said India is playing with fire by revoking Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and warned that it will eventually “burn the secularity” of the Indian state, Dawn reported on Saturday. According to the newspaper, Alvi made the comments in an interview to Vice News on August 22 but the American website did not make the entire video available for viewers in India.

Alvi said the dispute cannot be resolved bilaterally, and urged the international community to intervene. “How many years have passed?” asled the president of Pakistan. “Can the world remain quiet and keep on pushing the two parties to talk when one party doesn’t want to talk?”

Alvi asked the Indian government to withdraw the order that revoked Kashmir’s special status. “I think India is going on a road which is very dangerous, agitating its own Muslim population,” he added.

Alvi said Pakistan would continue to internationalise the dispute, and said the people of Kashmir will make clear their intention once the security lockdown ends. He alleged there was a possibility of India conducting a false-flag operation “like Pulwama” before attacking Pakistan. “If India starts a war it is our right to defend ourselves,” the president added. “But Pakistan doesn’t want to start a war.”

Alvi requested the international community to pressure India to go back on its moves in Kashmir. “I think there is a hegemonistic intent to swallow Kashmir [but] it won’t happen,” he added.

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In a recent interview, the country’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said he would no longer attempt to deliberate with the Indian government on Kashmir dispute, and raised concerns about an imminent military escalation between the two nuclear powers. Khan said there was no scope for dialogue with India as his previous attempts had been ignored. Last week, he had expressed concerns about the safety of nuclear weapons “in the control of the fascist, racist, Hindu supremacist Modi government”.

The Pakistan prime minister has repeatedly hit out at the Narendra Modi administration for its decisions regarding Jammu and Kashmir, and on more than one occasion likened the ruling Bharatiya Janata party’s ideology to that of the Nazis. He has also alleged that genocide of Kashmiris is imminent.

Pakistan has tried to raise Kashmir matter at international forums. On August 16, the United Nations Security Council held a rare closed-door meeting to discuss the situation in the state. Several countries, including China, the United States and France, have urged the two countries to resolve the matter bilaterally.

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