Indian authorities in the main city of occupied valley tightened security on Friday after local leaders called for a protest march to a UN office, with streets bristling with paramilitary personnel and some blocked by checkpoints. Posters appeared overnight this week in Srinagar calling for a march to the office of the UN Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to protest against India’s revocation of Jammu and Kashmir state’s special autonomy.
The call by Kashmiri leaders seeking Kashmir’s liberation from Indian occupation was the first since that decision on August 5, which brought communication and travel restrictions in Kashmir that are still largely in place. Some landlines were restored last week.
Posters bearing the name of the Joint Resistance Leadership, comprising three Kashmiri leaders fighting Indian occupation in Kashmir, had appeared on Thursday across Srinagar, urging people to march to the UN office after Friday prayers. The posters called for preachers to educate the public about the ‘explosive situation arising from India’s political, geographical and demographic plans’ in Kashmir.
The UNMOGIP was set up in 1949 after the first war between India and Pakistan over Kashmir. The group monitors ceasefire violations along the Line of Control between the countries.
Protests have broken out in parts of Srinagar over the last two weeks, some drawing thousands of people. At least 152 people have been hurt by tear gas and pellets since security forces launched a sweeping crackdown, data from the Himalayan region’s two main hospitals shows.
On Friday, several dozen Indian paramilitary personnel manned at least two barriers on the main road leading to the office of UNMOGIP in Srinagar and public movement around it was blocked.
Entry into the city’s old quarter, which has long been a centre for protests, was severely curtailed, as policemen blocked street after street with concertina wire. Large swathes of Srinagar remained deserted with shops shut except for some provision stores with shutters half-down. Police vans patrolled some areas announcing a curfew and asking people to stay indoors.
On the Dal Lake, long rows of houseboats, which would typically be packed with tourists this time of the year, floated closed and empty, as police patrolled its mirror-calm waters in boats.
Landline phone service has been restored in some areas. Officials also say they have opened grade schools. But both student and teacher attendance has been sparse.
However, downtown Srinagar, the urban heart of resistance against India where about half a million people live, remained under a blockade. Some vendors and shopkeepers complained that police were forcing them to resume business to ‘enforce normalcy’ in the occupied valley. “They are telling us if you don’t resume business, we will take away the space allotted for vendors,” said Akbar, a vendor in the city’s main business center, Lal Chowk. Some taxi drivers also said authorities were forcing them on the roads even without passengers so that roads appeared busy with traffic. “They are exploiting the concerns of people pertaining to their livelihood. They’re using the same tactics they’ve employed time and again to break our resolve,” said Shakil Ahmed Bhat, a local resident. “But they should know that this time people will never surrender.”
US President Donald Trump plans to discuss Kashmir when he meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of a G7 meeting in France this weekend, according to a senior US administration official. Trump, who has offered to mediate between Indian and Pakistan, will press Modi on how he plans to calm regional tensions after the withdrawal of Kashmir’s autonomy, and stress the need for dialogue, the official said.
