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Pakistan: Risk of 'Accidental War' with India over Kashmir


Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi speaks during a press conference in Islamabad, Aug. 17, 2019.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi speaks during a press conference in Islamabad, Aug. 17, 2019.

Pakistan's foreign minister has warned that India's “illegal occupation” of Muslim-majority Kashmir could drive the two nuclear-armed countries “into an accidental war.”

Shah Mahmood Qureshi lashed out at Pakistan's southeastern neighbor amid heightened tensions since Aug. 5, when India's government changed the status of Indian-administered Kashmir - a region claimed by both countries.

At the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council, Qureshi accused India of turning Kashmir “into the largest prison on this planet” and alleged that torture and rape were occurring in a region facing a shortage of medicines and a food crisis.

“I shudder to mention the word ‘genocide’ here, but I must,” he said. He alleged cases of rape and torture against Kashmiris, and food and medicine shortages.

Qureshi said Tuesday that the tensions cannot be resolved bilaterally.

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