ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - India's crackdown on protesters and opposition in Kashmir will push more Muslims around the world towards extremism, Prime Minister Imran Khan said in a speech on Friday.
The prime minister addressed the Pakistani-administered part of the disputed Kashmir region.
India abolished the special status of its territory, known as Jammu and Kashmir, on 5 August and imposed measures to restrict communications and freedom of movement.
Authorities in Indian Kashmir have arrested nearly 4,000 people since then, government data seen by Reuters showed.
"When atrocities reach their peak, people prefer to die over this humiliating life," Pakistani Prime Minister Khan said at a rally in Muzaffarabad, capital of Azad Kashmir.
"I want to tell India that by arresting thousands people are pushing people towards extremism," he said.
"People will rise up against India and it is not just about India's Muslims, but there are 1.25 billion Muslims around the world," he said.
The Ghost of Genocide
Khan said he would attend the UN General Assembly in New York next week to defend the Kashmir issue.
He urged people in Azad Kashmir to avoid approaching the Line of Control dividing the two parts of the region, and wait until it was raised to the issue in New York.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday that the "illegal military occupation" of India's Muslim-majority Kashmir raised the specter of "genocide".
Muslims make up almost two-thirds of Jammu and Kashmir, but Hindus make up the majority in India.
The Indian-controlled part of the region includes the densely populated Kashmir valley, a Hindu-dominated area around the city of Jammu, while Pakistan-controlled parts include a strip of land in the west.
China controls a mountainous area in the north and is not inhabited by many people.