This is apropos a Business Recorder editorial "Fighting Covid-19 together" carried by the newspaper yesterday. Through this letter I want to congratulate special assistant to prime minister Dr Zafar Mirza for telling India's prime minister Narendra Modi that lockdown in occupied Jammu & Kashmir should be ended to help fight the coronavirus outbreak.

No doubt, the entire Jammu & Kashmir has been in a state of lockdown since August 05, 2019 when New Delhi decided to revoke the special status of occupied Jammu & Kashmir in an arbitrary manner. At present, the occupied region has been hit by the deadly virus of coronavirus. According to latest figures, around 1829 persons in the occupied region are under home quarantine and 29 persons are in hospital quarantine while 131 persons are said to be in home surveillance. Those in hospital quarantine are reportedly facing shortage of ventilators and ICU beds. In other words, New Delhi has accelerated its repression against the Kashmiris by denying them required medical facilities. The Modi government must pay attention to the plight of incarcerated Kashmiris in order to prove that he is really serious in dealing with the challenge of coronavirus in the region.