"We urge all parties to exercise restraint," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters, adding that UN peacekeepers observing a ceasefire between India and Pakistan in the state of Jammu and Kashmir "has observed and reported an increase in military activity along the line of control."

India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in a bid to fully integrate its only Muslim-majority state with the rest of the country, its most far-reaching political move on the territory in nearly seven decades.