Coronavirus outbreak: Kashmiri leader urges India to allow WHO to enter IOK

ISLAMABAD: Voicing his serious concern over the prevailing situation emerged after the coronavirus outbreak the senior Hurriyat leader and Senior Vice Chairman of Jammu and Kashmir National Front Altaf Hussain Wani has urged India to allow World Health Organisations (WHO) and medical experts entry to occupied Kashmir to help identify and treat the victims besides controlling and containing the further spread of the virus in the region.

In a statement issued here on Thursday Wani said that amidst the prevailing political and human rights situation in the restive region there was a serious threat of spreading the epidemic within the occupied territory. He said that people in the occupied territory had no adequate health facilities available to tackle this menace that has unfortunately swept many countries.

He said that under the given circumstances it was quite difficult to know what steps the occupied authorities have taken to control the spread of the virus. Stressing the need for immediate restoration of internet facility, he said that the lack of internet in the region has further complicated the situation as no information about coronavirus victims was available to the people.

Referring to overcrowded Tihar Jail in New Delhi where top rank Hurriyat leaders including JKNF Chairman Nayeem Ahmed Khan, Shabir Shah, Yasin Malik, Asiya Indrabi, Mussarat Alam Bhat and others have been imprisoned for past couple of years Wani said, “Coronavirus poses serious threats to prisoners who have been held in extremely pathetic conditions”. Prisoners, he said, were at high risk of serious infection from coronavirus, which he said has become a global challenge.

The JKNF leader also urged the world human rights organisations to put pressure on India to release Kashmiri prisoners whose lives in jails are at grave risk of harm.

Meanwhile, in a separate statement, the JKNF spokesman asked Indian government to release all political prisoners who have been kept under preventive detentions in different jails in India. “Hundreds of Kashmiris have been arrested and thrown behind the bars under the pretext of fake cases. Since the coronavirus epidemic threatens the lives of prisoners across the globe there is a dire need that government should release all prisoners without any further delay”, the spokesman added.