Ayatollah Khamenei expresses concern over the situation in Kashmir

Tabnak – Despite enjoying friendly relations with both India and Pakistan, Iran has started to feel worried about the latest developments in the Muslim-majority region of Kashmir. As the highest-level authority in the Islamic Republic, Iranian Supreme Leader expresses the country’s concerns over the issue.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has expressed concern about tensions in Kashmir, urging India to follow a fair policy with respect to people of the Muslim-majority region.

“We maintain good relations with the Indian government, but the Indian government is expected to adopt a fair policy toward the decent people of Kashmir and the Muslim people of the region are not pressurized,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a meeting with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani and his cabinet members in Tehran on Wednesday.

The Leader described the current situation in Kashmir and the dispute between India and Pakistan over the region as the ensuing result of Britain’s “malicious measures” when it departed the Indian subcontinent.

“To prolong the conflict in Kashmir, the British intentionally left this would [open] in the region,” the Leader said.

Kashmir has been the scene of fresh protests and placed under a lockdown ever since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government revoked the Indian-administered region’s special status.

New Delhi claimed that the decision to strip the disputed Muslim-majority region of its semi-autonomy was necessary for Kashmir’s economic development and to stop “terrorism.”

Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their partition and independence from Britain in 1947. The disputed region is claimed in full by both sides, which have fought three wars over it.

Apart from the Supreme Leader, a senior Iranian cleric had also condemned the Indian government’s recent decision to strip Indian-controlled Kashmir region of its special constitutional status as an “obnoxious” move, warning Indian authorities against the use of excessive force against Muslims there.

“We urge the Indian government to refrain from harsh treatment of Muslims as it will neither be in its interest nor that of the region,” Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani said in an address to worshipers at weekly Friday prayers in the Iranian capital, Tehran on Aug. 9.

Also on Aug. 13, Iran called on the Indian government to reduce the tough security measures in Kashmir, which have put restrictions on people’s lives. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi expressed the Islamic Republic’s deep concerns over the ongoing situation in the Majority-Muslim Kashmir and the restrictions imposed on the region’s people.

He called on the Indian authorities to adopt practical approaches so that the life in the region could return to normal, and Kashmiris could enjoy their “natural and recognized rights”.