India’s ‘false-flag operation’ imminent, Pakistani PM warns

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has warned that India will soon launch a false-flag operation in order to divert the world’s attention away from its ongoing “genocide” in the Jammu and Kashmir region.

“I am reiterating again that a false flag operation is imminent from India in order to divert world attention away from its ongoing genocide in IOJK [Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir],” Imran Khan tweeted on Wednesday.

Imran Khan’s comment echoed his Sunday warning that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government might conduct a false flag operation against Pakistan by terming the Kashmir freedom movement “terrorism” and accusing Pakistan of backing it.

In a series of tweets on Sunday, PM Khan said the Modi doctrine had first deprived Kashmiris of their right to self-determination by illegal annexation of an occupied territory.

Khan said the Indian government also treated Kashmiris as less human by a three-pronged approach.

“One by trying to crush them with brutal force including the use of inhumane weapons like pellet guns against women and children,” he added.

In a separate tweet on Wednesday, Imran Khan also condemned the Indian “occupation” forces for torching 15 homes in Srinagar.

“15 homes torched by Indian Occupation forces in Srinagar yesterday as 900k security forces subject Kashmiris to brutal oppression,” he noted.

“Modi's Hindutva Supremacist Occupation Govt is committing war crimes in IOJK including changing the demography in violation of 4th Geneva Convention,” he added.

Scores of police and paramilitary soldiers cordoned off a neighborhood in Srinagar's old quarters on a tip that some anti-India forces were hiding there, paramilitary spokesman Pankaj Singh said on Tuesday.

Explosions and gunshots echoed through the densely populated neighborhood, with streets largely empty as a result of a coronavirus lockdown that has kept most residents to their homes.

Kashmir photojournalists win Pulitzer for lockdown coverage

Three photojournalists who captured life during Kashmir lockdown win 2020 Pulitzer Prize.

At least five homes were reduced to rubble during the gun battle and 10 others were severely damaged, residents told the AFP news agency.

The 12-hour gun battle ended with the killing of Junaid Ashraf Sehrai, a commander of Kashmir's largest rebel group, Hizbul Mujahideen, and his aide.

The clashes came weeks after India introduced a new law that would make its citizens eligible to become permanent residents of the Indian-controlled Kashmir, raising fears of a demographic change in the Muslim-majority, Himalayan region.

Indian-controlled Kashmir has been in a state of lockdown since August 5, when the administration of Prime Minister Modi stripped the region of its semi-autonomous status.

New Delhi dispatched thousands of additional troops to the region, declared a strict curfew, shut down telecommunications and internet services, and arrested political leaders and pro-independence campaigners as well.

Indian forces kill top pro-independence commander in Kashmir

India has banned Hizbul Mujahideen as a terrorist outfit along with similar groups.

New Delhi had promised special status to Kashmir when the region was partitioned between India and Pakistan seven decades ago.

However, Modi and his nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have long opposed Kashmir’s autonomy.

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk