'It’s going to be a massacre': PM Imran fears impending genocide in occupied Kashmir

NEW YORK: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said he would appeal to the United Nations for help as India’s military clampdown in occupied Kashmir enters its seventh week. 

In a meeting with editors of The New York Times, PM Imran who is in US to attend the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly said, “They do not understand that this can go horribly wrong.”

“If the UN doesn’t speak about it, who is going to speak about it?” PM Imran said.

Occupied Kashmir has been under lockdown since August 5, after New Delhi decided to revoke the special status of the valley. In the past two months, Indian forces have rounded up at least 2,000 Kashmiris, including elected representatives.

PM Imran said India was behaving irrationally — and against its own longer-term interests.

“Arrogance,” he said, “stops people from being rational.”

The prime minister said he would ask the United Nations to step in, warning that it was too risky to allow tensions to escalate between India and Pakistan, both of which have nuclear weapons.

“This is the UN's job,” he said, adding, “They have to intervene, send observers there.”

The prime minister further said he feared the moment the curfew is lifted, widespread violence would break out. “This is very dangerous,” he said, “because people don’t realise where it’s headed. It’s going to be a massacre, the moment they lift the curfew.”

He added he was not optimistic that he would accomplish anything in his speech to the United Nations, at least not in the near term.

“But at least the world will be aware,” he said. “Because I fear an impending genocide.”

Separately in an interview with Wall Street Journal (WSJ), PM Imran said Pakistan wanted to lift its people out of poverty and focus on building a peaceful neighbourhood but the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-backed Narendra Modi government was following an agenda rooted in racial supremacy.

“Racism is often rooted in arrogance and arrogance can lead people to make huge blunders. That’s what Modi has done in occupied Kashmir,” he said while speaking to the editorial board of WSJ.

“I have come to New York especially for Kashmir. Everything else is secondary. The world doesn’t realise that we are heading for a big disaster,” PM Imran added. 

India’s repressive and illegal actions in occupied Kashmir would not only have repercussions for the region but for the entire Muslim world, the prime minister added.