Children as young as nine detained, protests and tear gas, allegations of torture, businesses shut and no mobiles or internet: it’s now been two months of misery in the Kashmir Valley.
India stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy on August 5 and said it would split the state in two, after sending in tens of thousands of troops to impose a lockdown and detaining the region’s top politicians.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the audacious move was to end “a vicious cycle of terrorism, violence, separatism and corruption” and make Kashmir a “paradise once more”.
Since 1989, tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died in an uprising against Indian rule by freedom fighters wanting all of Kashmir to be part of Pakistan or an independent state.
Evidence on the ground suggests that the locals are livid about India’s latest move, with regular demonstrations, business owners refusing to open their premises and children kept out of schools.
The Indian government says that most people in the Kashmir Valley, the main hotbed of resistance to Indian rule, support the move and that opposition comes only from elements backed by Pakistan. Indian security forces have killed several civilians in gun battles and police said they intercepted weapons bound for Kashmir. Prime Minister Imran Khan last week told the UN General Assembly that India could unleash a “bloodbath” in the Muslim-majority region, warning of the risk of nuclear war.
More than 4,000 people have been arrested since August 5, including 144 minors, around 1,000 of whom remain in custody, some under a law that allows suspects to be held for up to two years without charge. Landlines have been restored but mobile phones and the Internet remain snapped in most of the Kashmir Valley, home to around seven million people. India insists “normalcy” is being restored.
Around 100 civilians and 400 members of the Indian security forces have been injured in clashes since August 5, authorities say.
Locals have also blamed the authorities for the deaths of four civilians – including a mother who choked to death after tear gas was fired into her home.
Outside the main city Srinagar, young men told AFP last month that soldiers tortured them. The military strongly denies this. UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has said she is “deeply concerned” while Washington has called for a “rapid” lifting of restrictions.
Meanwhile London-based weekly The Economist said India’s judiciary was ignoring the government’s abuses in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK).
The paper in an article says more than seven million people of the occupied region feel urgency of judicial decisions on petitions challenging the government’s actions in Kashmir, as they are suffering since August 5 and continue to be under siege.
The Economist notes that the BJP-led government has turned the occupied territory into an open-air detention centre. It says the Indian government wielding draconian anti-terror laws has detained thousands of Kashmiris, including politicians, businessmen, activists and journalists to prevent them from protesting and they continue to be held without charge at undisclosed places. In IHK, normal life continues to remain badly hit on the 61st successive day, with restrictions and communications blockade in place in the Kashmir Valley and Muslim majority areas of Jammu region.
The residents continue to live in a state of fear due to heavy deployment of Indian troops with main markets shut, traffic off the roads and offices and educational institutions although open yet devoid of any individual presence.
The shortage of essential commodities like milk, baby food and life-saving medicines due to blockade is adding to the miseries of the residents.
Narendra Modi-led communal government in New Delhi had put occupied Kashmir under military siege on August 5 this year when it repealed special status of the territory.
Meanwhile, Indian police in their continued crackdown arrested four more persons, including a Hurriyat leader and a religious scholar, in Kishtwar and Doda districts. Over 20 persons have been arrested by the police during the last four days in these districts.
Meanwhile, amid rising persecution of minority groups in India, a former judge of India’s Supreme Court issued a chilling warning to Muslims residing in the Hindu-dominated country.
Justice (r) Markandey Katju, who is also an ex-chairman of the Press Council of India, cautioned that “Muslims in India will be targeted in coming times, like Jews in [Nazi] Germany, as scapegoats”.
In a tweet, the former SC judge said the increased oppression of Muslims in India was because the ruling “BJP has no solution 2 [to] economic crisis, which is worsening”.
In an article published in an international magazine, The Week, earlier this month, Justice Katju wrote that “India has sown seeds for a large-scale guerrilla war in [Occupied] Kashmir by stripping the territory of its special status”.
“The time has come to speak the truth that Kashmir will soon become what Vietnam was for the French and the Americans, Afghanistan for the Russians and Spain for Napoleon.”
