LAHORE: The Indian High Commission in Islamabad has refused visas to a Pakistani medical mission wishing to visit the held Kashmir for treating the victims of recent violence.

Thirty visa applicants, including senior doctors and paramedics, were not allowed entry into the commission’s building, mission coordinator Dr Nasir Hamdani told the media in Islamabad. He said as the Indian High Commission had refused to accept their visa applications by hand, they had applied online and sent documents through a courier company too.

The little known Muslim Medical Mission is headed by Dr Zafar Iqbal, who also reportedly coordinates the medical camps organised by the Jamaatud Dawa (JuD).

“We had applied on humanitarian ground and not on a political basis,” Dr Hamdani said, requesting world human rights agencies, including the UN, to pressurise India for issuance of visas as the Kashmiris, according to him, had refused to get treatment from Indian doctors.

Mr Hamdani also appealed to medical practitioners across the world, including Christians or Hindus, to reach Srinagar to help the Kashmiris’ injured by pellet guns and chemicals by the Indian forces. He said the mission would have also carried medical supplies, which were in short supply in the India-held Kashmir.

Published in Dawn, July 27th, 2016