'It’s going to be a massacre' after curfew is lifted in Kashmir: PM Imran

NEW YORK: Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged the United Nations to take notices of  India’s military clampdown in occupied Kashmir which is on going since August 5.

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

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.”