UNMOGIP: Way Past the Finish Line

World this Week

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government has asked the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to vacate office in capital city of India situated in a bungalow on Purana Qila Road, which has been serving as its office for the last four decades.
Very few people know about United Nation Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP). It was set up under the United Nation resolution with a mandate to observe ceasefire on the line of control in 1951.

The UNMOGIP had replaced United Nations Commissions for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) that was monitoring the ceasefire since 1949, and shuttles its headquarters between Islamabad and Srinagar for six months every year.
According to the sources, Modi government has conveyed to the UN, that the UNMOGIP’s role has been overtaken by the Shimla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the Line of Control (LoC), and now it has no relevance and role to play in New Delhi.
The opposition also backed the NDA government and said UNMOGIP mandated to monitor cease-fire violations in Jammu & Kashmir and has outlived its relevance and asked the government to take the issue appropriately
On the issue Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said that the step will not affect the legal proceedings in the Kashmir issue. “Asking them to move out of the building does not abolish the mandate which was given by the UN Security Council in 1951 under Resolution 91. As long as the Kashmir dispute is not resolved, the UNSC mandate remains. These measures are inconsequential and they do not have any impact on the legal status of the dispute,” she said.
The step is seen as clear message that Modi Government doesn’t want any international interference on the Kashmir topic.