Pakistan warns India 'playing with fire' in Kashmir

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Pakistani President Dr. Arif Alvi has warned that India is ''playing with fire'' in the Indian administered Kashmir by changing the status of the territory, state-run Radio Pakistan reported on Saturday.

In an interview with a Canadian-American media outlet, Vice News, the President said that India is living in fool's paradise if they are feeling that they will improve the situation with revoking the special status of Kashmir.

"The international community should continue putting pressure on India to foil its hegemonic intent to swallow the whole Kashmir," Alvi urged.

He added that India could carry out false flag operation and attack on Pakistan to divert the international community's attention from Kashmir's situation.

Alvi suggested that India should withdraw the constitutional amendments and allow Kashmiri people to decide their own future.

The President on Saturday also posted a video on his twitter account in which Kashmiri men and women staged a protest and chanted slogans against the Indian government's action to revoke the special status of the valley.

"This is Srinagar yesterday despite curfews, bans, blackouts, teargas & firing. No amount of oppression & brutality can suppress the resentment of the Kashmiris against India. They want freedom at all costs. Please retweet and let the world know", President Alvi wrote as caption with the video clip.

The Indian-administered region has been facing a clampdown since Aug. 5, when the Indian government revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which conferred it a special status.

Hundreds of people, mostly political leaders, have been detained or arrested by authorities since 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.

According to several human rights groups, thousands of people have been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.