Pakistan accuses India of threatening regional peace and stability

Indian army trucks on the Srinagar-Leh National Highway at Sonmarg, near India’s border with China, May 28, 2020. (AFP)

• India on Thursday said it would peacefully resolve its border conflict with China
• The stand-off began in early May with a scuffle between Indian and Chinese border troops

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday accused India of "jeopardizing the peace and stability of the entire region," following a standoff between Indian and Chinese troops in the border region of Ladakh.
The accusation came from Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who also said the showdown was sparked by Indian infrastructure works in the disputed area.
"The recent conflict between China and India was triggered by the latter’s illegal constructions in Ladakh. In the wake of the law and order situation in the region, the international community should take immediate notice of the Indian government's growing extremism and hegemonic agenda,” Qureshi said in a statement.
Earlier this week and in a series of tweets, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan also attacked India by saying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is "becoming a threat to India’s neighbors."
Pakistani Foreign Office spokeswoman Aisha Farooqui told Arab News on Friday that regional peace and security are being threatened by India on both the Line of Control (LoC) with Pakistan and the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China, as well as on its border with Nepal.
“Increasingly we see a pattern whereby India has taken unilateral actions in violation of established mechanisms and bilateral understandings and agreements with its neighbors,” Farooqui said.
On May 10, the Indian army reported that several Indian and Chinese soldiers were injured in a cross-border clash at Naku La in North Sikkim, which borders Bhutan, Nepal and China. The focus has since moved to India's Ladakh region across the border from Tibet.
India and China fought a war over India's northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh in 1962. China still claims some 90,000 square kilometers of territory under New Delhi's control.
While no shot has been fired across their border for more than four decades, there have been numerous face-offs. In 2017, there was a 72-day showdown after Chinese forces moved into the disputed Doklam plateau on the China-India-Bhutan border.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump offered to mediate the dispute.
"We have informed both India and China that the United States is ready, willing and able to mediate or arbitrate their now raging border dispute,” Trump wrote in a Twitter post.
India, however, sidestepped the offer and announced it would resolve the matter diplomatically. 
"India is committed to the objective of maintenance of peace and tranquility in the border areas with China. At the same time, we remain firm in our resolve to ensure India's sovereignty and national security,” India’s foreign ministry spokesman, Anurag Srivastava, told reporters during a media briefing on Thursday.