‘UN chief’s appeal for global ceasefire also applies to LoC’

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations (UN) said Wednesday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' recent global appeal for a ceasefire in world's conflict zones also applies to the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir where India has repeatedly been violating the ceasefire causing casualties and damages on the Pakistani side.

"There is no region in the world, in which the Secretary-General's call for global ceasefire does not apply," the UN chief's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in response to a question from APP at his daily online news briefing. "That is clear. It is global and it means global," he added.

In an appeal issued on March 23, the UN chief urged warring parties across the world to lay down their weapons in support of the bigger battle against COVID-19: the common enemy that is now threatening all of humankind.

But that global appeal does not seem to have an effect on Indian occupation troops who frequently fire across the LoC in violation of the ceasefire. Besides protesting to India, Pakistan has also been filing complaints against New Delhi's aggressive acts with the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), which observes and reports on ceasefire violations along and across the LoC and the working boundary between the South Asian neighbours in Jammu and Kashmir, as well as reports devel-opments that could lead to ceasefire violations.