After Jammu and Kashmir lost its special status, Pakistan has been trying to raise the issue at international forums but, barring China, has not found any support

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that the Indian government’s first concern was to ensure that there was no loss of lives in Jammu and Kashmir due to violence and demonstrations in the region post-abrogation of Article 370.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Wednesday that before August 5, the day Article 370 was scrapped, Kashmir was in a mess adding that restrictions were imposed to avoid a repeat of 2016 when the Valley convulsed following militant Burhan Wani’s death.

Jaishankar said that the Indian government’s first concern was to ensure that there was no loss of lives due to violence and demonstrations in the region post abrogation of Article 370.

“Pre August 5 Kashmir was in a mess, difficulties in Kashmir did not start on August 5, it is supposed to be a way of dealing with those difficulties,” the minister said at Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) meeting in New York on the sidelines of the UNGA.

“We had experience of 2016 when a self advertised terrorist cult figure was killed, a gentleman called Burhan Wani, after that there was spike in violence. Our intention was to manage the situation (post Article 370) without loss of life, restrictions were intended to do that.” he added.

Elaborating on the situation in the trouble-torn Valley pre-August 5, Jaishankar said that the level of intimidation had reached a height where senior police officers were lynched on streets of Srinagar, journalists who wrote against separatism were assassinated, military personnel returning home for Eid were being kidnapped and killed.

Taking a dig at Pakistan, the country he has earlier called terroristan, the minister said: “You have terrorism in different parts of world but there is no part of world where a country uses it consciously and deliberately as a large scale industry against its neighbour.”

The comments came a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a bilateral meeting with US president Donald Trump mentioned the history of Pakistan’s involvement in terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir . Sources said that the PM used the meeting to successfully demolish Pakistan’s allegations regarding the Himalayan state.

The External Affairs Minister added that the issue was not whether to talk or not. ”Issue is how do I talk to a country that is conducting terrorism and follows a policy of implausible deniability.”

“You have a neighbour who will not allow you connectivity...who in many ways has slowed down regionalism because of concern that it might integrate them more with our economy...who filters people to people interaction. It’s a very challenging neighbour,” the minister added.

After Jammu and Kashmir lost its special status, Pakistan has been trying to raise the issue at international forums but, barring China, has not found any support. China had come out in support of Pakistan and even made a reference to Jammu and Kashmir in a joint statement with Islamabad. New Delhi firmly rejected the statement and said the two neighbours should stop work on the China Pakistan Economic Corridor that passes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.