Sharif Vows to Aid Those Injured in Kashmir Violence

Islamabad: In yet another bid to highlight the Kashmir issue, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today 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, Sharif described the Kashmir situation as an "ongoing humanitarian crisis".

"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. 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 Sharif as saying.

"Even more gruesome is that healthcare providers" in Kashmir have not been allowed to treat innocent victims, Sharif alleged.

He claimed that "the Indian forces have also been targeting the hospitals and ambulances providing healthcare to the peaceful, defenceless and innocent protesters".

Sharif said that being blinded has severe consequences for the victims and their families. "Nevertheless, they are resolute; they are guided by thelight of freedom for the realisation of their right to self-determination. The world should realise this," he said.

Pakistan shall continue to support them morally, politically and diplomatically, the Prime Minister said Sharif's call came a day after his Advisor on ForeignAffairs Sartaj Aziz wrote a letter to Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) to help Kashmiris.

The latest statement by Sharif is yet another effort by Pakistan to highlight the issue of Kashmir at the international level.