"When the curfew is lifted, it will be a bloodbath," the Pakistani prime minister told the UN General Assembly on Friday (September 27th). Imran Khan warned the United Nations, gathered at the General Assembly, of the risk that the crisis in Kashmir would lead to a nuclear war with India, a war that would have consequences for the whole world.

India keeps the Himalayan region disputed under a lead slab since it revoked, on August 5, the constitutional autonomy of the part of Kashmir it controls.

Imran Khan was only allowed to speak for 15 minutes, but his heated speech lasted almost an hour. While speaking at the UN platform, several thousand demonstrators gathered near the UN building in New York, some supporting Indian politics, others denouncing it.

"Freedom for Kashmir, end of siege", could we read on the banners brandished by pro-Pakistan protesters. On the side of the support of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, other signs emphasized his quality of "visionary".

New Delhi has imposed intense security deployment, cut communications and restrict travel, while arresting or placing many people under house arrest.

"We will fight"

"There are 900,000 soldiers on the ground, they did not come - to quote Narendra Modi - for the prosperity of Kashmir, these 900,000 soldiers, what will they do?" Asked Imran Khan. "There will be a bloodbath," he insisted.

If India did not mention the number of troops deployed in Kashmir, the figure mentioned by Imran Khan, if confirmed, would be equivalent to two-thirds of the Indian army.

"If a conventional war begins between our two countries, anything can happen," he warned, while stressing that Pakistan, "seven times smaller than its neighbor", would have a difficult choice: "either surrender, the fight for freedom to death. "

"What will we do, I ask myself these questions, we will fight", "and when a nuclear country is fighting to the end, it can have consequences far beyond its borders," he warned. . "This can have consequences for the whole world and that is why, I repeat, I came to alert you, not to make threats."

Shortly before him, his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi had spoken in the same forum, without mentioning the explosive issue of Kashmir. He nevertheless assured that his country, carrying a "message of peace", wanted to "warn the world against terrorist networks", in an apparent allusion to Islamabad, which he regularly accuses of supporting extremist groups.

On Friday, Indian security forces tightened circulation restrictions in Kashmir, fearing protests during speeches delivered by India and Pakistan to the UN.

"The biggest prison in the world"

In Srinagar, the main city of Indian Kashmir, dams of concrete blocks and barbed wire have been set up everywhere.

The conditions in Kashmir have radicalized a new generation in the population, according to the Pakistani Prime Minister, who has assured that he himself would have taken up arms in their situation. "It's been 55 days since I've been locked up, I've heard about rapes, Indian soldiers entering homes," he said, imagining what he might have said in that case.

"Would I want to live this humiliation, would I like to live like that, take a gun, and force people to radicalize," he said to the Indian authorities.

"Kashmir is a prison, the biggest prison in the world right now," says Rozeena Khan, one of the protesters in New York. Teacher from Indian Kashmir, she is uncertain about the situation of her father, 86 years old, and unreachable.

On Thursday, the United States asked India to lift its restrictions on Kashmir.

India and Pakistan shared Kashmir at the time of independence in 1947, including two wars for control of the region.

With AFP