UNITED NATIONS: Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Tuesday there seemed no possibility of bilateral dialogue between Pakistan and India presently, and urged the UN Security Council to defuse tensions between the two countries, while addressing reporters in Geneva.

India flooded the disputed Himalayan region with thousands of troops, put the region on a communications lockdown and revoked its constitutional autonomy on August 5th, with the issue becoming a flashpoint for the nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors and Pakistan making appeals to the UN to interject since. Pakistan has also suspended transport and trade with India, and downgraded diplomatic ties.

“I do not see in the present environment, any possibility of a bilateral engagement with India,” Qureshi said.

India and Pakistan both rule parts of Kashmir while claiming it in full, and have fought two wars over the region. Their forces regularly engage in cross-border firing over the Line of Control, the de-facto border between the two countries.

While addressing the UN Human Rights (UNHR) Council, Qureshi warned of the possibility of genocide.

“I shudder to mention the word genocide here... but I must,” Qureshi told the UNHR, and said people in Indian-administered Kashmir faced “grave threats” to their lives.

There was no immediate comment from India in the council, but since August, Delhi has upheld its stance that a constitutional change in Kashmir’s status was the country’s internal matter.

On Monday, at the opening of the council session, UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said she had appealed to India to ease restrictions in Indian-administered Kashmir to ensure people’s rights and access to basic services.

Since the 1980’s, India has battled militancy in its part of Kashmir, and accuses Muslim Pakistan of supporting insurgencies there- a charge Islamabad vehemently denies.