Punjab gasps as India’s Modi refuses to seek oxygen from Pakistan

Repeated requests by Punjab leaders to import life-saving gas from ‘enemy nation’ go unheeded by federal government.

Amritsar, India – Amid an alarming shortage of medical oxygen, the Punjab government approached Prime Minister Narendra Modi to facilitate an “oxygen corridor” with Pakistan, India’s archrival neighbour which shares a 550km-long (342 miles) border with the northwestern state. There have been at least eight instances of requests made by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh and other politicians from the state asking Modi to procure oxygen from Pakistan, whose city of Lahore is barely 50km (31 miles) away from Amritsar. The demand to procure oxygen from Pakistan came after the country’s Prime Minister Imran Khan offered help to India on April 25. Pakistan’s prominent Edhi charity also volunteered to send medical aid amid rising COVID-19 cases in the country.