United Nations, May 5 : Ahead of the UN Security Council meeting on India and Pakistan, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Monday that it pains him that their ties have reached a "boiling point".

"Tensions between India and Pakistan are at their highest in years", he said, calling on the two countries to step back from the brink.

"It is also essential ' especially at this critical hour -- to avoid a military confrontation that could easily spin out of control".

"I understand the raw feelings following the awful terror attack in Pahalgam on 22 April", he said. " It pains me to see relations reaching a boiling point" between the two countries.

Condemning the terror attack, he said, "Targeting civilians is unacceptable ' and those responsible must be brought to justice through transparent, credible, and lawful means".

"It is also essential ' especially at this critical hour -- to avoid a military confrontation that could easily spin out of control. Now is the time for maximum restraint and stepping back from the brink", he warned.

The Security Council is scheduled to hold a closed-door consultation on the situation in South Asia at the request of Pakistan.

Assistant Secretary-General Mohamed Khaled Khiari, who is in charge of the Middle East and Asia Pacific in the UN's Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, is to brief the consultation.

Because Pakistan, currently an elected member of the Council, asked for closed consultations, India will likely be shut out of it because, under Council procedures, countries that are not members are not allowed to participate in the closed-door meetings, which are also referred to as 'consultations of the whole'.

Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a post on X that it will 'formally apprise the UNSC of the latest developments in South Asia'.

The meetings are held informally in a side room, not in the Council chamber, and no records of the consultations are published.

The meeting is scheduled for 3 p.m. in New York (12.30 a.m. Tuesday in India).

The Resistance Front, an affiliate of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, owned responsibility for the terrorist massacre of 26 people 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."

Guterres spoke to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif last Tuesday to express 'deep concern' over the rising tension between the two countries.

/IANS