ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir has urged the United Nations, World Health Organization and International Committee of the Red Cross to set up an “international humanitarian medical corridor” to help provide medical support to the people of the disputed Kashmir valley. 

This week, the government in Indian-administered Kashmir extended a ‘corona curfew’ till May 10 in five districts in view of rising COVID-19 cases. 

On Wednesday, during a session of Pakistan’s Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi called on international aid agencies to set up a medical corridor to help the people of the disputed region cope with the pandemic.

“Situation in India is delicate and being a neighbor, Pakistan is concerned,” Qureshi said, addressing the committee, according to Pakistani newspaper Dawn. “Pakistan offered assistance due to the challenging situation. We have not received any response from India yet … Kashmir is also suffering, and we feel very strongly as we are connected to them historically and religiously,” 

Deaths rose by a record 3,780 during the past 24 hours in India, health ministry data showed, and daily infections rose by 382,315 on Wednesday. The number has been in excess of 300,000 every day for the past two weeks.

Medical experts say India’s actual figures could be five to 10 times the official tallies. The country has added 10 million cases in just over four months, after taking more than 10 months to reach its first 10 million.

Kashmir Committee chairman Shehryar Khan Afridi, who was presiding over Wednesday’s meeting, presented a detailed report on the deteriorating crisis in India as well as Kashmir and called upon the world community to intervene on humanitarian grounds.

He said Kashmir had recorded over 191,000 coronavirus cases, with 2,458 deaths, while health facilities were under immense strain. 

Afridi said the request to set up an international medical corridor on humanitarian grounds “comes from the entire nation” as the Kashmir Committee had representation of all political parties of Pakistan.

The committee subsequently passed a unanimous resolution asking the UN, WHO, ICRC and other organizations to intervene and set up an international medical corridor to provide medical assistance and supplies of medicines to the people of disputed Kashmir.

Last month, Azad Kashmir President, Sardar Masood Khan, had expressed his hope that New Delhi would establish a “humanitarian corridor” for Indian-administered Kashmir.