SINCE the early days of the Kashmir issue, the United Nations has made it a customary ritual to give a call for `restraint` to both Pakistan and India. The recent conflict was no different. The world powers have done much the same except for the United States which in the current case has talked about resolving the root cause of the Pakistan-India problem.

Such an attitude of the UN has really encouraged India to continue to maintain itsillegaloccupation ofthe disputed territoryforoverseven decades.On top of that, both countries have, during the course of time, acquired nuclear weapons, making it an even more dangerous dispute.We have seen that 75 years of delivering restraint sermons have not been, and can never be, an alternative to a permanent solution and peace in the region. India should also accept the ground realities, because its efforts during the last 75 years to change the status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir have taken it nowhere. The Kashmir dispute has refused to disappear.

Despite the fact that India faces several freedom movements and unrest in Manipur, Punjab, Mizoram, and, indeed, has a major confrontation with China, it is not making any effort to lessen its burden of problems so that it may alleviate the life of its suffering population. This is not statecraft by any stretch of imagination.

Abid Mahmud Ansari Islamabad