Activist rebukes Pakistan for shifting coronavirus positive cases to PoK

Kashmiri political activists have rebuked Pakistan for shifting Coronavirus affected people from the eastern province of Punjab and the rest of the country to Mirpur city in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The activists said that the Pakistani establishment was deliberately spreading the coronavirus to get international aid.

Nasir Aziz Khan, spokesperson of United Kashmir People' National Party told ANI: "When Coronavirus started spreading across the world, many countries took it seriously and used their best infrastructure to fight the pandemic. For example, Italy has the best infrastructure in medicine. Similarly, Switzerland and other European countries like Germany, France, Great Britain, and Belgium, spared no attempt to fight the pandemic".

"And despite having the best medical infrastructure, they are not able to stop the number of casualties. The virus continues to spread rapidly", said Nasir, a political activist from the PoK, now settled in Zurich, Switzerland.

He condemned Pakistan's move to shift coronavirus patients to PoK, despite it having a lot of free areas and hospitals.

Nasir said: "As soon as coronavirus started spreading across Pakistan, they did not take it seriously. In Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), there was only one positive case. Positive cases of coronavirus from Punjab province are being shifted to Mirpur city of PoK. Here, there are no basic health facilities and they used to take their patients to other parts of Pakistan for treatment. Some patients die while transporting them to hospitals due to poor road infrastructure".

The activist said that there is no laboratory in the PoK that could do basic blood and urine tests and noted the coronavirus test needs trained doctors and testing kits.

"In Pakistan, there are better hospitals as compared to PoK, but they are shifting coronavirus positive cases to this region. When the locals started protesting, they were harassed," he said.

Nasir added: "27 people were brought here on Monday, of which 13 were coronavirus positive. The results of the rest of them are awaited. Locals said that there are plans to shift hundreds of other patients from Pakistan".

"We want to ask Pakistan government: Do they not have infrastructure including hospitals and doctors in Punjab? In the last 73 years, you have failed to set up a good hospital and a lab in PoK," he said while adding that it was unacceptable that they brought patients from Punjab and the rest of Pakistan to Mirpur and PoK.

"Coronavirus patient in Pakistan should be treated there only. There is available infrastructure in Pakistan. We have 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," said Nasir Aziz Khan.