With no US support, Pak's 'third party probe' demand falls flat

New York: Pakistan is trying desperately to internationalise the border clash with India, and while global diplomatic nervousness over Kashmir is never far from the surface, US and world leaders are refusing to get drawn by Pakistan into a “third-party” probe into ceasefire violations on the Line of Control (LoC) in northern Kashmir. India on Thursday rejected Pakistan’s demand that the UN be asked to probe allegations that Pakistani troops killed and beheaded two Indian soldiers in Jammu and Kashmir. “Pakistan’s demand is rejected out of hand. We will not internationalise the issue nor go to the United Nations,” Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after a cabinet meeting. India says Pakistani soldiers crossed into Indian-controlled Kashmir near the town of Mendhar, about 110 miles from Srinagar, on Tuesday and killed two Indian soldiers before retreating back into Pakistani-controlled territory. Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar has denied Pakistan’s hand in the killing of Lance Naik Hemraj and Lance Naik Sudhakar Singh and said Pakistan is ready for a third party probe to verify their claims if ‘India doesn’t believe in its inquiry.’ [caption id=“attachment_584349” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar arrives to speak at a press conference in Islamabad. AP[/caption] “We have ordered an independent investigation, but we are offering more, let a third party investigate the issue,” Khar said in an exclusive interview with CNN-IBN, adding that Pakistan has completed its investigation in the matter. The UN Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), has asked India and Pakistan to respect the ceasefire and de-escalate tensions. The UNMOGIP said it has received a complaint from the Pakistan Army to probe Sunday’s ( 6 January) killing of a Pakistani soldier by Indian troops. But Martin Nesirky, spokesman for Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said the UN has not received any official complaint from India or Pakistan on the second incident on 8 January involving the brutal beheading of two Indian soldiers. In a third border incident involving tit-for-tat fighting, Indian troops fired across the Kashmir border and killed a Pakistani soldier on Thursday. Pakistan, however, said the shooting was unprovoked, while the Indian military said its troops responded to fire from soldiers across the frontier. It’s transparent why India wants to deal with the latest Kashmir border skirmish as a bilateral issue, while Pakistan wants to take it to the UN. India opposes mediation in Kashmir, while Pakistan sees it as the only way to pressure India to have talks on Kashmir. Pakistan tries to drag the US, Europe and UN into the Kashmir tangle at the drop of a hat. Much to Pakistan’s chagrin, the US State Department is apparently unresponsive to the idea of a UN probe and has asked India and Pakistan to talk to each other to improve relations. “We’re urging both sides to take steps to end the violence. We continue to strongly support any efforts to improve relations between the two countries,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters in Washington. The US is a long way from repairing its own messed relationship with Pakistan that was badly strained in 2011 following a raid by US commandos on Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan. There is also huge Pakistani resentment about America’s campaign of drone strikes. US drone-fired missiles hit a house in Pakistan’s northwest tribal region on Thursday, killing five suspected militants. It was the seventh such attack in less than two weeks. The recent spate of strikes by the CIA has been one of the most intense in the past two years.