Islamabad (AFP)

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday orchestrated a national event dedicated to the crisis in Indian Kashmir with the intention of putting pressure on his counterpart Narendra Modi ahead of the UN General Assembly in late September.

Thousands of Pakistanis, responding to his call, took to the streets to protest against the drastic policy of closure for several weeks by New Delhi in the Kashmir area under his control.

Tensions remain strong between the two South Asian neighbors with nuclear weapons since the announcement in early August by the Indian authorities of the revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which conferred a special status on the Himalayan region. Jammu and Kashmir.

The territory is in its fourth week of curfew and blocking communications and thousands of people have been arrested, local sources told AFP.

These actions raised a strong emotion in Pakistan that multiplies the protests. Kashmir is disputed by India and Pakistan since the partition of the British colonial empire of India in 1947 and is divided in fact between the two enemy brothers of South Asia.

At noon (0700 GMT) on Friday, the sirens sounded throughout the country and television stations broadcast the hymns of Pakistan and Kashmir. Road traffic was interrupted for several minutes.

This national event is the first in a series before Mr. Khan left for the UN General Assembly in late September in New York, where he promised to put the issue on the table and play the role of ambassador for his people.

In the capital Islamabad, thousands of people gathered in front of government buildings where the former cricket champion gave a speech to the nation, promising to continue the fight for Kashmir and "fight for his cause in each forum, until it is released. "

"Today, we want to tell the Kashmiris that we are all with them, that we share their suffering," he said, strongly attacking his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, whose government he compared to that of Nazi Germany.

Thousands of Pakistanis also demonstrated in the big cities of Lahore (east) and Karachi (south), chanting slogans and waving flags.

"No matter what India does, no matter what Modi does, Kashmir is ours, it's ours, and we're not going to do anything while our Kashmiri brothers are oppressed by the Indians," he said. Sadaf Mirza, a 24-year-old student in Lahore.

- "Nuclear threat" -

In a column in the New York Times, Imran Khan said it was "imperative for the international community to think beyond its commercial and economic benefits."

"World War II came about as a result of (a) politic of appeasement in Munich, a similar threat hovering over the world, but this time under the threat of nuclear weapons," he said. warned.

Mostly Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India have waged three wars since independence and partition in 1947, including two in Kashmir.

After the partition, Kashmir was divided into two parts, 37% for Pakistan and 63% for India, separated by a Control Line (LoC), de facto border. The UN resolution, which in 1948 called for the organization of a referendum on self-determination in Kashmir, remained a dead letter to New Delhi's opposition.

The latest protests come as the Pakistani army announced Thursday that it had tested a ground-to-ground missile that it said could carry "different types of warheads".

US President Donald Trump, having repeatedly said he was ready to get involved in this "explosive" issue, backtracked after a meeting Monday with Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 in France.

In February, the two nuclear powers were at the brink of a new armed conflict after the death of some forty paramilitaries in Indian Kashmir in an attack claimed by an extremist group established in Pakistan.

© 2019 AFP