In yet another bid to highlight the Kashmir issue, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday vowed to provide medical help to those injured in violence there and called on the international community to ask India to provide access for treatment of victims.
Two days after Home Minister Rajnath Singh at the SAARC meeting here asked countries to stop glorifying terrorists as martyrs, Mr. Sharif described the Kashmir situation as an “ongoing humanitarian crisis.”
‘For treatment of eye injuries’
“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has called upon the international community to immediately help arrange medical treatment for the victims” in Kashmir, especially for treatment of eye injuries resulting from use of pellet guns by the Indian forces, a Pakistan Foreign Office statement said.
“The Prime Minister conveyed Pakistan’s unequivocal support in arranging best available medical facilities to these injured people, anywhere in the world,” it said.
‘Ongoing humanitarian crisis’
Mr. Sharif also called upon the international community to exercise its influence over India for “ending bloodshed” in Kashmir and providing access for provision of treatment to the victims in the wake of the “ongoing humanitarian crisis.”
“The humanitarian crisis, which is of huge magnitude, has compelled us to immediately pool our material and human resources for treating the victims of brutal state oppression,” the statement quoted Mr. Sharif as saying. “Even more gruesome is that healthcare providers” in Kashmir have not been allowed to treat innocent victims,” he alleged.
Charge against Indian troops
The Pakistan Prime Minister claimed that “the Indian forces have also been targeting the hospitals and ambulances providing healthcare to the peaceful, defenceless and innocent protesters.”
Mr. Sharif said that being blinded has severe consequences for the victims and their families.
“Nevertheless, they are resolute; they are guided by the light of freedom for the realisation of their right to self-determination. The world should realise this,” he said.
‘Pak shall continue to support them’
Pakistan shall continue to support them morally, politically and diplomatically, the Prime Minister said.
Mr. Sharif’s call came a day after his Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz wrote a letter to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) to help Kashmiris.
