Karachi, Pakistan: At least 39 people were injured in a grenade attack as Pakistani government officials led rallies in support of Kashmiris on Wednesday and Prime Minister Imran Khan spoke at the legislature of the portion of Kashmir under his country's control as the country observed first anniversary of the annulment of the special status of Kashmir by India.
Last August, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government stripped Jammu and Kashmir - India's only Muslim-majority state - of its special rights and split it into two federally administered territories. In his speech, Khan condemned Delhi's actions and said Pakistan's efforts to lift the issue on the international stage were drawing the world's attention to abuses in Kashmir.
"Myself I have talked to all top world leaders, to Trump two or three times I told him how dangerous it is for the world, that it is a flashpoint, to Merkel of Germany, to Boris Johnson, Macron of France, I explained it to all of them, because they didn't understand but slowly they have understood," he said.
Khan also said Pakistan would honour Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani with Pakistan's highest civil award later this month. Kashmir is claimed in full by India and Pakistan, which have gone to war twice over it, and both rule parts of it. Indian authorities deployed troops and curbed public movement on Wednesday to stop potential protests in Kashmir.
About two hundred people from a Kashmiri group called "World Kashmir Forum" marched in the southern city of Karachi while lawyers burned pictures of Modi. Later in the day, at least 39 people were injured in a grenade attack on a rally in Karachi. The rally organized by Jamaat-e-Islami, a religious right party, was called off after the attack. The wounded were rushed to different hospitals, where one was in a critical condition, an official from the provincial health department said.
The attack was claimed by Sindhudesh Revolutionary Army, a separatist outfit that has become active in the past months. The group wants Sindh province, of which Karachi is the capital, to break from the Pakistani federation. It has also announced its alliance with the Balochistan Liberation Army, a militant group fighting for greater autonomy for the Balochistan region in southwestern Pakistan.
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