JuD medical team to apply for Indian visa to travel to Kashmir

A medical team belonging to the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) has applied for a visa at the Indian High Commission to visit Kashmir.

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Lahore: A medical team belonging to the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD) will apply for Indian visas on Tuesday to visit Kashmir.

The visa will be sought on grounds of ‘offering help’ to those who suffered during the violent stone-throwing protests following the July 8 killing of top pro-Pakistan rebel commander Burhan Wani.

JuD is headed by Mumbai attack mastermind Hafiz Saeed.

"A team of 30 doctors and paramedical staff of 'Muslim Medical Mission' (of the Jamaat-ud-Dawah) will apply for Indian visa on Tuesday in order to reach Kashmir where they could treat the people injured in clashes with the Indian Army. Eye specialists are part of the team who will treat many people suffering from eye injuries there," Ahmed Nadeem, an official of the JuD, said.

Asked about how the Indian embassy in Islamabad would entertain the JuD medical team's request in the current circumstances, Nadeem said the Muslim Medical Mission would request the Pakistani government to help in this regard.

Meanwhile, the mission's president Prof Dr Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry said if the Indian government does not allow its medical team to travel to Srinagar to treat the injured Kashmiris, it would hold demonstrations against it.

Chaudhry claimed that it is "our duty to reach out to the injured Kashmiris for their treatment as the Indian government is not fully providing treatment to the injured".

"A three-member Indian doctors team returned from Srinagar without treating the injured," he alleged.

Notably, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had hailed the slain Hizbul Mujahideen commander as a "martyr" who fought for Kashmir's "Azadi".

JuD chief Hafiz Saeed had earlier said that Burhan had called him over the phone and informed about the operation he was working on.

Reacting to this, Home Minister Rajnath Singh said it amounted to an "open confession" of the Pakistani terrorist's role in fomenting trouble in Kashmir. "The entire world should take note of it," Singh said.

Saeed, who is wanted by India for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, that Burhan Wani had telephoned him and had apprised him of the operation he was working on.

“A few days before his martyrdom, Burhan Wani told me over the phone that it was his wish to talk to me. He told me that now his wish was fulfilled, he was waiting for martyrdom. A few days later news of his martyrdom came,” Saeed said while addressing the crowd.

The Lashkar-e-Toiba chief also said that Burhan was in contact with Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin and other LeT commanders.

India has told Pakistan not to encourage people in Jammu and Kashmir to become terrorists and stop meddling in Kashmir affairs.