Kashmir president urges for humanitarian corridor
People face shortages of food, medicines in locked down Kashmir valley, says Azad Kashmir president
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
Azad Jammu and Kashmir (Pakistan administered Kashmir) President Sardar Masood Khan on Tuesday urged the international non-governmental organizations to establish a humanitarian corridor to provide basic amenities to the people of Indian administered Kashmir.
Addressing a news conference here in Pakistan's capital Islamabad, aired on state-run PTV News, Khan said that a humanitarian crisis is developing in Kashmir as it has been 16 days since the Indian forces locked down the valley.
"Now people are facing shortages of food and medicines as the Indian forces have locked down the entire Kashmir valley," Khan said.
Khan urged the international non-governmental organizations to establish a humanitarian corridor to provide basic amenities and food items to the people of occupied Indian Kashmir.
He claimed that Indian forces have arrested around 6,000 Kashmiri people, activists and local political leaders and they are held in prisons outside the Kashmir valley.
Khan accused the Indian government for "carrying a planned genocide in the Kashmir region".
"There is information that the Indian forces pick up innocent people, murder and bury them in unmarked graves," Khan claimed.
Kashmiri president also warned the international community that the situation would deteriorate in the valley when Indian forces lift the curfew.
"People will come out in the streets once the curfew lifts and I fear Indian forces will use forces against them," he said.
He urged the UN Security Council to hold an open session on Kashmir and take immediate steps to end the ongoing crisis in Kashmir.
Jammu and Kashmir (India-administered) region has been facing a clampdown since Aug. 5, when the Indian government revoked Article 370 of the Indian constitution which conferred a special status on it. According to Human Rights Watch, hundreds of people, mostly political leaders, have been detained or arrested by authorities since the Indian Parliament made the move.
Kashmiri leaders and residents fear the move is an attempt by India to change the demography of the state, where some groups have been fighting Indian rule for either independence or unification with neighboring Pakistan.
India and Pakistan both hold Kashmir in parts and claim it in full. China also controls part of the contested region, but it is India and Pakistan who have fought two wars over Kashmir.
