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There is an urgent need to provide humanitarian relief and medical assistance to people who have been affected by over a decade long war in Kashmir. Their need for relief can be judged by the fact that more than 79,000 Kashmiris have lost their lives; thousands have been disabled for life; nearly 25,000 of their homes have been destroyed, and their orchards and business centres have been ruined. Kashmir's overall economy is in ruins.

Tourism, forestry, horticulture, handicrafts, including wood-carving, embroidery and papier-mache, shawl and silk industries and production of saffron, which were the main economic pursuits of the people of Kashmir, are now in shambles as a result of the turmoil. The world is unaware that thousands of Kashmiris have become refugees in their own homeland. Unlike Afghan refugees, who had taken shelter in Pakistan, Kashmiris cannot cross over into Pakistan because of the 120 miles of territory in between them. Territory which is strewn with mines and check-posts put up by the armed forces and includes impassable snow-capped mountains of up to 20,000 feet.