Imran Khan warns UN of potential nuclear war in Kashmir

Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, has said he has been trying to raise the alarm at the United Nations this week about the danger of a nuclear war breaking out over Kashmir.

India and Pakistan came close to a conflict in February when India bombed Pakistani territory for the first time in a half century and warplanes from both countries fought a dogfight over the divided region.

Tensions were defused when Pakistan returned a downed Indian pilot. But they have grown again since India revoked a constitutional clause that endowed semi-autonomous status on the part of Kashmir under its control in August. India moved hundreds of thousands of troops to the region and carried out thousands of arrests.

Khan said the move was driven by the Hindu nationalist ideology of the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, whom he called a “fascist”.

The Muslim-majority territory is currently under heightened security, while mobile and internet services have been cut, but Khan predicted a popular backlash once such measures are lifted.

“They’ll come out on the streets. What happens then?” Khan told journalists at the UN general assembly. He pointed to the presence of a 900,000-strong Indian force there currently enforcing security.

“I fear there will be a massacre and things will start to go out of control,” the Pakistani leader said.

“My main reason for coming here was to meet world leaders at the UN and speak about this. We are heading for a potential disaster of proportions that no one here realises,” Khan said. “It is the only time since the Cuban crisis that two nuclear-armed countries are coming face to face. We did come to face to face in February.”

Khan has vowed to defend Pakistani territory but has also expressed fear of an uncontrolled escalation. He spoke on Wednesday about his dilemma on being told of the Indian air strikes.

“In February, my army chief calls me up and the air force chief, [saying] that Indian jets have come and bombed Pakistan territory. What do we do? What do we do?” Khan said. “Should I – should we – have to make that choice.”

He said he had expressed his fears in conversations this week with Donald Trump, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson.

Trump has offered to mediate, but only if both Pakistan and India agree. India has been resistant to outside mediation, and Modi has presented his actions in Indian-controlled Kashmir as essential to counter separatism and terrorism, which he accuses Pakistan of fomenting. _Agencies

Dhaka/AKA