Support people's right to protest says UN on reports of PoK protest

The UN said it supports people's right to demonstrate their opinions peacefully about issues they care about, amid reports that women in PoK had offered their bangles to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during protests for 'not doing enough' on the Kashmir issue.
"I think we are... we are fully supportive of everyone's right to demonstrate their opinions peacefully about issues that they care about," Ban's spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters here yesterday.

He was asked to comment on some reports in the Pakistani media of women in Muzaffarabad offering their bangles to Ban as a kind of insult aimed at him over perceived inaction over violence in Kashmir, where tensions have escalated following the killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani.

Ban had said that he is closely following the clashes in Kashmir, calling on all parties to "exercise maximum restraint" to avoid further violence and hoped that all concerns would be addressed through "peaceful means"