United Nations, May 5: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) will be holding a closed-door meeting on Monday on the regional situation in South Asia, where tensions have risen between India and Pakistan after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, according to a diplomatic source.

The source said on Sunday night that Council President Evangelos Sekeris received a request for closed-door consultations from Pakistan's Permanent Representative Asim Iftikhar Ahmad. Sekeris is convening the meeting on Monday afternoon, the source said. The Pakistani request said it was asking for the meeting "in view of the deteriorating regional environment and rising tensions between India and Pakistan, particularly the situation in Jammu and Kashmir." It "poses a threat to both regional and international peace and security," Pakistan said.

Under the procedures of the Council, countries that are not members are not allowed to participate in closed consultations, which are also referred to as "consultations of the whole." Pakistan is currently an elected member of the Council and will participate in the meeting. The meetings are held informally in a side room, not in the Council chamber, and no records of the consultations are published. Ahmad said on Friday that Pakistan was considering calling a meeting of the Council because "kinetic action" by India was imminent. The Resistance Front, an affiliate of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, claimed responsibility for the massacre of 26 people by the terrorists in Pahalgam.

Following the attack, Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed, "We will identify, trace, and punish every terrorist and their supporters. We will pursue them to the ends of the Earth." Secretary-General Antonio Guterres spoke to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif last Tuesday to express "deep concern" over the rising tension between the two countries. He also expressed his "strong condemnation" of the terrorist attack and said it was important to pursue "justice and accountability for these attacks through lawful means," according to his Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.

Pakistan has mounted a diplomatic campaign at the UN, with Ahmad meeting Guterres, General Assembly President Philemon Yang, the representatives of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation members, and others in an attempt to assert its claims of innocence and call for de-escalation.

(IANS)

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