China urges Pakistan, India to ‘exercise restraint’

BEIJING, Feb 26 (Agencies): China urged India and Pakistan on Tuesday to "exercise restraint" after New Delhi said its warplanes attacked a militant camp, in a move that sent tensions soaring between the arch-rivals over disputed Kashmir.
"We hope that both India and Pakistan can exercise restraint and adopt actions that will help stabilise the situation in the region and improve mutual relations," China's foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is expected to meet his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj and Russia's Sergei Lavrov in the Chinese city of Wuzhen on Wednesday for a previously planned meeting.
Wang called Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday to discuss the recent suicide attack, saying China supports Pakistan and India in efforts to resolve the issue through dialogue, state news agency Xinhua reported.
China, one of Pakistan's closest allies, has poured billions of dollars into the South Asian country as part of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a massive infrastructure project that seeks to connect its western province of Xinjiang with the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar in Balochistan.
The project is one of the largest in Beijing's Belt and Road initiative, comprising a network of roads and sea routes involving 65 countries.
Even before India and Pakistan won their independence from Britain in August 1947, Kashmir was hotly contested.
Under the partition plan provided by the Indian Independence Act, Kashmir was free to accede to India or Pakistan.
The maharaja (local ruler), Hari Singh, chose India and a two-year war erupted in 1947.
A new war followed in 1965, while in 1999 India fought a brief but bitter conflict with Pakistani-backed forces.
By that time, India and Pakistan had both declared themselves to be nuclear powers.
Many people in the territory do not want it to be governed by India, preferring instead either independence or union with Pakistan.
The population of the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir is more than 60 per cent Muslim, making it the only state within India where Muslims are in the majority.
High unemployment and complaints of heavy-handed tactics by security forces battling street protesters and fighting insurgents have aggravated the problem.
Violent insurgency in the state has ebbed and flowed since 1989, but the region witnessed a fresh wave of violence after the death of 22-year-old militant leader Burhan Wani in July 2016. He died in a battle with security forces, sparking massive protests across the valley.
Wani - whose social media videos were popular among young people - is largely credited with reviving and legitimising the image of militancy in the region.
Thousands attended Wani's funeral which was held in his hometown of Tral, about 40km (25 miles) south of the capital, Srinagar. Following the funeral, people clashed with troops and it set off a deadly cycle of violence for days. More than 30 civilians died, and several others were injured in the clashes. Since then, sporadic violence has been reported in the state.
More than 500 people were killed in 2018 - including civilians, security forces and militants - the highest such toll in a decade.