There are two faces of Pakistan when it comes to Kashmir. One is ugly while other is uglier. When the entire world is praising India for its efficient model of controlling the COVID-19 spread, the Pakistan has resorted to ugly politics of raising concerns over the safety of people of Jammu & Kashmir. And what is uglier is the dumping of the domestic Coronavirus patients into the Pakistan- Occupied Kashmir (PoK) to get international aid. Protests are being held across the PoK, Gilgit Baltistan against the Pakistan government’s decision to put lives of people living in these regions at risk. Activists, political leaders, people from these regions said the Pakistan government was deliberately shifting the COVID-19 affected from the rest of Pakistan to their areas with intention of getting financial assistance.
United Kashmir People' National Party (UKPNP) has slammed the Pakistan government by saying it was “unacceptable” that Imran Khan government brought patients from Punjab and the rest of Pakistan to Mirpur and PoK. Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, exiled chairman of UKPNP, said Pakistan was using the Kashmir to house sick people from the country. "Pakistan must stop deliberately spreading coronavirus in PoK to get international aid. The Pakistani establishment is deliberately spreading the coronavirus to get international aid and is also trying to use the territory of Kashmir to house their sick, which is a diabolical move." Meanwhile, the UKPNP has informed the international community, including the WHO and the UN that PoK is a disputed area and Pakistan has no right to shift coronavirus patients in this region, which can take the life of millions of people in the region.
In gross violation of human and civil rights, Islamabad forced many people living in Mirpur of the PoK to evacuate their properties overnight, on the lines of Chinese ways of governance, and converted Mohi-Ud-Din Hospital into a quarantine centre to lodge COVID-19 patients. UKPNP has raised questions over shifting coronavirus affected to PoK when there are a lot of free areas and hospitals in Pakistan. “It is an open secret that Pakistan has always used our areas for its nefarious designs and gains. It launched operation Gulmarg, Operation Tupac and Operation Gibraltar to spread the virus of extremism, terrorism, and religious hatred, which resulted forced division and we lost one whole generation," said Shaukat.
People in the PoK and Gilgit- Baltistan terrified as the poor and inadequate health infrastructure would mean fast spread of coronavirus in their area. These politically insignificant regions of Pakistan have been struggling for decades to get medical facilities even for the treatment of minor ailments. Muzaffarabad resident Jaffar Ismail said Pakistani Army wanted to keep just Punjab province safe so it treated PoK and Gilgit- Baltistan as the dustbin of the country. "We have been seeing the movement of coronavirus patients from all over Punjab to hospitals in Muzaffarabad and we are very scared at this latest betrayal of the Kashmiri people by the Pakistan army,” Ismail said.
Soon after Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui “advised” India to ensure the provision of essential items and medical supplies to the people of Jammu & Kashmir, the Islamic Republic was at the doors of India requesting supply of ventilators and drugs such as hydroxychloroquine. Islamabad has even failed to take care of basic requirements of the people in PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan. Not hopeful of Pakistani regime, the people in PoK have made request to Indian government to send them food due to acute shortage of food in their regions. Social activists from the Hunza area of Gilgit Baltistan have made allegations of negligence in the distribution of relief materials to the affected people by Pakistan government. Hafiz Hafeezur Rehman, Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan Hafiz Hafeezur has slammed the federal government in Islamabad for failing to ensure sufficient technical and financial support to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.