Prime Minister Imran Khan has asked Russia and other world powers to play their role to resolve the issue of Kashmir, saying he fears that the situation in the occupied territory could soon spiral out of control.

“Eight million people are currently under siege in Kashmir and there is no news coming out of there,” the premier said while speaking to Paula Slier of Russia's Kremlin-backed international broadcaster RT in Islamabad.

“Some 4,000 people have been picked [by Indian forces] in Kashmir, with a curfew imposed there. We fear that an unprecedented oppression is taking place there,” he said during the interview published on Friday.

Prime Minister Imran said that India annexed occupied Kashmir unilaterally. “This situation naturally cannot be accepted by the people of the valley.”

It seems, he added, that the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party]-led government has decided to use sheer force to subdue and oppress the people of Kashmir and intimidate them to accept the former’s illegal move.

To a question, the premier said he doesn’t think that the world has reacted as it should have. “The response of the international community is not what we expected,” he maintained.

“The UN has the responsibility to act now,” he said. “The US, France, Germany, Russia and other countries should step forward to play their role.”

India, he added, has been taken over by a "fascist, racist government" and by the extremist ideology of the hardline organisation RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh).

Imran highlighted that as opposed to India’s claims, Kashmir is not their internal matter and this is also true according to the charter of the United Nations. He pointed out that a plebiscite or referendum never took place in Kashmir despite passage of resolutions by the UN in this regard.

Regarding Pakistan’s ties with Russia, the premier said Moscow and Islamabad should give their relations a fresh start. "Russia could be a part of the solution to the Kashmir crisis," he added.

He noted that although Moscow and Islamabad were on opposite sides of the barricade during the Cold War, it is time to put the past behind and start anew.

On August 5, India's ruling party stripped Kashmiris of the special autonomy they had for seven decades through a rushed presidential order.

By repealing Article 370 of the constitution, people from the rest of India will now have the right to acquire property in occupied Kashmir and settle there permanently. Kashmiris as well as critics of India’s Hindu nationalist-led government see the move as an attempt to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers.