This is for the first time the UNHRC has issued a report on the alleged human rights violations in Kashmir and PoK.
Misuse of the Article 370 is the root cause of cross-border terrorism, he said.
The recent breach of ceasefire by Pakistan was aimed at infiltrating Lashkar-e-Tayiba cadres into Jammu and Kashmir ahead of the polls and to bring Kashmir issue back into limelight, as the neighbouring country was feeling isolated with the growing clout of India in the international forum, according to security experts.
The director general-level talks between border forces of India and Pakistan kicks off on Thursday days after parleys between their national security advisers were cancelled with the host nation set to flag the "most important" issue of ceasefire violations and cross-border infiltration.
How to deal with a country that has made export of terror a reason to make the world notice and fund it? Rediff.com contributor Sanjeev Nayyar offers a few suggestions
'The Pakistani denial was the greatest triumph of this strategy.' 'From now onwards Pakistan will always have to factor in the Indian reaction when it decides to back non-State actors like LeT,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The three heavily-armed terrorists killed by the Border Security Force in Samba district had infiltrated into Jammu and Kashmir to carry out a chain of terror attacks by blowing up running trains and tracks with chained IEDs and hard to detect liquid explosives, a top force official said on Wednesday.
The two Koreas agreed during rare talks on Wednesday to form a combined women's ice hockey team to take part in next month's Winter Olympics in the South.
In the Middle East, which is already coping with the Qatar-Saudi Arabia tensions, comes another pressure point.
The army recovered the second body of an insurgent, who was injured in an ambush on an army convoy in Chandel district of Manipur on June 4, from a village close to Myanmar border.
'The interesting point about the choice of the area for the surgical strikes is that it is the most sensitive part of the Line of Control,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'The visit by the MEPs and their photo-op with Modi would suggest that we have now given a quiet burial to the 'internal matter' charade,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India on Thursday completely rejected as "baseless and unsubstantiated" allegations levelled by Pakistan against eight officials of the Indian high commission in Islamabad and strongly protested the manner in which their names and photos were published, compromising their security.
Top diplomats from Afghanistan and Pakistan engaged in verbal sparring during a discussion on cross-border terrorism and presence of terrorist safe havens, at the United Nations Security Council.
Official said the crackdown would be intensified in the coming days as government had resolved to eliminate militancy.
Delhi was just one riot. Add Bengal, Assam, Uttar Pradesh and you can count a few scores dead. It could, regrettably, be just the beginning of a very long, dark phase for India, notes Shekhar Gupta.
Putin said India was facing a serious problem on account of terrorism and it was not an "imaginary thing".
'This was the worst phase yet in the state's human rights history.' 'Notorious interrogation centres were set up, large numbers died in firing on civilian mobs.' 'This is what today's generations might identify better as the Haider phase in Kashmir's history,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Pakistan's ruler Pervez Musharraf and his top diplomats made a U-turn on talks with India after the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee released Hurriyat leaders in early 2000 as part of his peace initiatives on Kashmir, according to a declassified US cable.
'The Balakot mission was an act of political signaling that India is willing to raise the price that the Pakistani State has to pay in order to support terrorism.'
'India should be able to weather the storm, given its enhanced standing among the major powers. However, India's international clout is partly from its rapidly growing emerging economy and a large and expanding commercial market. 'If the Indian economy continues to slow and protectionist barriers advance, then our international clout will also diminish. The international fallout from bringing the Valley to heel may be more difficult to handle,' says Shyam Saran.
Since Balakot strike, India is trying to build maximum pressure on Pakistan on the issue of terrorism, sources said.
The two sides, sources said, also agreed to stop ceasefire violations along the International Border "through enhanced communication via multiple modes at all possible levels".
'China's growing nexus with Pakistan and the two countries' unresolved territorial disputes with India continue to pose a formidable national security threat to India,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'Such incidents can only exacerbate the sense of alienation among the Kashmiri people, in particular the Kashmiri youth.' 'It is as if for some of our political figures and misguided youth, Kashmir is a piece of real estate over which we assert our claim, but the people there are dispensable,' notes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
Prime Minister Khan said his government was keen to bring the perpetrators of the 2008 Mumbai attack to book, asserting that it was in the interest of Pakistan.
The President has approved award of 398 gallantry and other defence decorations to armed forces personnel and others on the eve of the 68th Republic Day Celebrations.
'The two NSAs, who have been mandated to address mutual concerns on terrorism, will need to devise credible and irreversible measures to see that the likes of Hafiz Saeed and Masood Azhar do not ever get a free hand to run riot again,' says Ambassador G Parthasarathy, India's former high commissioner in Pakistan.
'There cannot be any compromise on that. After all, all instrumentalities of the State have been made to serve it. Why was the Constitution made? It was made to serve the cause of India.'
The US said that it sees positive indicators in Pakistan, but...
'New Delhi feels that given the internal dynamics in Pakistan and the overwhelming powers wielded by the army, one will have to wait for better times to see any meaningful progress in the India-Pakistan relationship,' says Ambassador G Parthasarthy.
Emerging markets and Asia may be first in the firing line
The upcoming Indo-Pak National Security Adviser-level talks appeared to be on the verge of being aborted with both sides locked in a confrontation over Kashmiri separatist leaders.
She also underlined that 'black laws' like AFSPA would be repealed from the state only when the situation improves.
Israel threatened to wipe out Hamas if current truce in Gaza collapsed as time ran out on Wednesday on the 72-hour ceasefire with no breakthrough in indirect talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators due to "significant disagreements".
Stepping up its offensive in Gaza, Israel has mobilised another 16,000 reservists to widen its 24-day military campaign against Hamas militants that has claimed more than 1,360 Palestinian lives, mostly civilians.
BJP MP Vinay Katiyar said those who 'support Pakistan' were behind the violence.
Israel on Tuesday bombed several mosques, a hospital and a stadium in Hamas-ruled Gaza even as international efforts intensified to broker a ceasefire to end the 15-day conflict that has killed 620 Palestinians and 29 Israelis.
The kind of freedom Kashmir is enjoying today is not there even in Islamic countries like Afghanistan, Syria, Turkey and Pakistanis, Mufti said.
The 2 countries signed 15 agreements including one on defence cooperation after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held 'productive discussions' with President Joko Widodo.
