Creating corridor for corona victims in IOK urged

Islamabad : Chairman of Parliamentary Committee for Kashmir Shehryar Khan Afridi Wednesday warned the world against a humanitarian crisis brewing in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and called upon the international community to immediately start working to create a humanitarian corridor for besieged COVID-19 victims in Kashmir.

The chairman Kashmir Committee made these remarks while addressing a seminar titled as ‘Suffering Humanity Amid Kashmir Siege,’ organised here on the eve of ‘World Humanitarian Day’ 2020 under the aegis of Kashmir Committee.

Shehryar Afridi said that IIOJK was under double lockdown since August 5, 2019 and despite COVID-19 outbreak, the occupation regime was not providing relief to the suffering Kashmiris.

“The international community should come forward and create the humanitarian corridor in the IIOJK through which relief and aid could be provided to the people of the territory,” said Shehryar Afridi.

He urged the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Committee for Red Cross (ICRC) with fellow organisations to come forward and help build this corridor for Kashmiris by holding discussions with United Nations Military Observer Group based in Srinagar.

Afridi urged the United Nations and world community to intervene and provide medicines and COVID-19 related material to the Kashmiris, saying that Pakistan would also like to provide COVID-19 related materials and support to the Kashmiri people suffering from the pandemic.