PM Imran thanks Turkish President Erdogan for raising Kashmir issue at UN

UNITED NATIONS: Prime Minister Imran Khan has thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for raising the Kashmir issue in his address Tuesday to the UN General Assembly.

Speaking at a news conference in New York, he hoped more leaders would at least ask India to lift the siege on Kashmir.

"We are very thankful that the president has taken a very principled stance," said Khan, adding that Pakistan has a "very good relationship" with Turkey.

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He also said Erdogan will visit Islamabad next month.

Erdogan told the 193-member assembly that only dialogue can find a solution to the Kashmir issue that he said awaits a solution for 72 years.

"In order for the Kashmiri people to look at a safe future together with their Pakistani and Indian neighbours, it is imperative to solve the problem through dialogue and on the basis of justice and equity, but not through collision," said Erdogan.

"Despite the resolutions adopted by the United Nations Security Council, Kashmir is still besieged and 8 million people are still stuck in Kashmir," the Turkish president, who met Prime Minister Khan on Monday, said.

At the start of the session, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also spoke of the escalating tensions in South Asia, an obvious reference to the current India-Pakistan confrontation over New Delhi's annexation of Kashmir, and called for dialogue to resolve the crisis.

The Indian Occupied Kashmir has been under a tight military clampdown since August 5, when the Indian government revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which conferred it a special status.

Hundreds of people, including political leaders, have been detained or arrested by authorities since the Indian clampdown.