India playing with fire by scrapping Article 370, says Pakistan President Arif Alvi

Pakistan President Arif Alvi has said that India is playing with fire by scrapping Article 370 which gives special status to Jammu and Kashmir, media reports said. According to reports, Alvi said that the ‘fire’ will burn India’s secular fabric, according to his interview published in Canadian-American media outlet Vice News.

Alvi said that the Indian government was "living in a fool's paradise" if it felt that it could improve the situation in Kashmir by revoking Articles 370 and 35A.

When asked whether Pakistan was disappointed that no statement had been issued after the first United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on Kashmir in decades, the Pakistan president said a lot of background discussions on the situation took place and that the "Kashmir issue has been internationalised after a long time".

He alleged that India has ignored numerous Security Council resolutions on Kashmir and refuses to sit down with Pakistan to settle the dispute.

"For how long that will continue?" he said of the impasse in bilateral talks, stressing that a long time had passed since Pakistan and India entered into the Shimla Agreement of 1972.

Echoing Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's views, he said Pakistan will continue to raise the Kashmir issue at all international forums.

Meanwhile, Pakistan on Friday said it has sent another letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the humanitarian situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

The Foreign Office said the letter was sent by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

The letter highlighted in detail the context and consequences of India scrapping the special status to Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, it said.