All UNMOGIP personnel accounted for, safe: UN spokesperson amid heightened Indo-Pak tensions

United Nations: The UN said its peacekeeping personnel serving in the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan are safe and accounted for, as military strikes were launched by India targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan.

The Indian military carried out strikes against terror targets in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Pakistan's Punjab province on Wednesday. Pakistan army carried out one of the most intense artillery and mortar shelling in years targeting forward villages along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir.

Stephanie Tremblay, Associate Spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday was responding to a question on whether any United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) personnel in the areas were affected by the strikes overnight.

“So, we checked this morning with our DPO (Department of Peace Operations) colleagues, with our peacekeeping colleagues who are posted there. They said everybody was accounted for, and that everybody was safe,” Tremblay said.

India launched Operation Sindoor early Wednesday, hitting nine terror targets in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Pakistan's Punjab province in retaliation for the April 22 terror attack that killed 26 people in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam.

At least 13 people, including four children and a soldier, were killed and 57 injured as the Pakistan army carried out one of the most intense artillery and mortar shelling in years targeting forward villages along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir after the Indian missile strikes.

In response to a question on the reported Pakistani shelling of a Christian convent of Carmelite nuns in Poonch in Jammu and Kashmir, she said, “I don't have specific information about specific locations. But again, you know, we continue to call for maximum military restraint from both countries.” “And as the Secretary General said on numerous occasions, and I can repeat it today, he said that the world really cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” she added.

Guterres had expressed concern about the Indian military operations across the Line of Control and international border and called for maximum military restraint from both countries.

“The Secretary-General is very concerned about the Indian military operations across the Line of Control and international border. He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries. The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” Stephane Dujarric, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, said earlier.

The UNMOGIP was established in January 1949.

Following the India-Pakistan war in 1971 and a subsequent ceasefire agreement of December 17 that year, the tasks of UNMOGIP have been to observe, to the extent possible, developments pertaining to the strict observance of that ceasefire agreement and to report thereon to the Secretary-General.

India has maintained that UNMOGIP has outlived its utility and is irrelevant after the Simla Agreement and the consequent establishment of the Line of Control (LoC).

As per information available on the website of UN Peacekeeping, a total of 106 personnel are deployed in UNMOGIP as of February 2025, including 69 civilians and 37 Experts on Mission.