Pakistani PM Imran Khan warns U.N. of coming 'bloodbath' in India-held Kashmir
By Nicholas Sakelaris
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An Indian paramilitary soldier stands guard on August 14 in Jammu, the winter capital of India-controlled Kashmir. The Indian Kashmir region was placed under heavy lockdown after the Indian government stripped its autonomy. File Photo by Jaipal Singh/EPA-EFE
Sept. 27 (UPI) -- In his address at the United Nations General Assembly Friday, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan warned of a potential "bloodbath" in Kashmir -- when the curfew is lifted and millions of Muslims clash with hundreds of thousands of Indian troops.
Speaking before the 74th General Debate, Khan accused Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being driven by a racial ideology to cleanse his country of members of the Islamic faith.
Modi stoked tensions last month when he stripped India-controlled territories Kashmir and Jammu of their decades of autonomy and placed the mostly Muslim residents under curfew, backed by hundreds of government troops. Thousands of residents were arrested and Modi's government restricted all communications.
Khan said Friday the curfew has likely left Muslims in Kashmir with nothing to do but get radicalized.
"What do you think the Muslims are thinking right now?" he asked. "If there is a bloodbath, there will be Muslims becoming radicals -- not because of Islam, but because they see there is no justice.
"You are forcing people into radicalization."
Khan added that anyone would take up arms in such a situation, a declaration that drew jeers from some in the Assembly crowd. RELATED 37 die, 500 injured in Pakistan earthquake
"There will be a reaction to this. Pakistan will be blamed," Khan added. "Two nuclear-armed countries will come face-to-face ... Before we head in that direction the United Nations has a responsibility. This is why the United Nations came to be in 1945. You were supposed to stop this from happening." Khan spoke further about Islamophobia, climate change and the siphoning of funds from developing nations. Modi, who spoke three slots ahead of Khan, didn't mention Kashmir at all -- but did condemn terrorism and urged the United Nations to unite against global terror. RELATED Trump praises Indian PM Modi's economic reforms in Houston rally
"For the sake of humanity, I firmly believe that it is absolutely imperative that the world unites against terrorism and that the world stands as one against terrorism," he said.
After the partition of India and a rebellion in the western districts of the state, Pakistani tribal militias invaded Kashmir, leading the Hindu ruler of Jammu and Kashmir to join India[8] and starting the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 which ended with a UN-mediated ceasefire along a line that was eventually named the Line of Control.[9][10] After further fighting in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 and the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the Simla Agreement formally established the Line of Control between the two nations' controlled territories.[11][12] In 1999, armed conflict between India and Pakistan broke out again in the Kargil War over the Kargil district.
Since 1989, Kashmiri protest movements were created to voice Kashmir's disputes and grievances with the Indian government in the Indian-controlled Kashmir Valley,[14][15] with some Kashmiri separatists in armed conflict with the Indian government based on the demand for self-determination.