India arrests over 500 as occupied Kashmir clampdown challenged

[Abdullah719]

Indian security forces have arrested more than 500 people since New Delhi imposed a communications blackout and security clampdown in occupied Kashmir, where people remained holed up in their homes for a fourth day on Thursday.

The rigorous security measures followed India's decision this week to revoke the special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir and downgrade the Himalayan region from statehood to a territory. Kashmiri fighters have been fighting against Indian rule in the occupied region for decades.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address the nation on Thursday to discuss the issue. His national security adviser, Ajit Doval, visited the region on Wednesday to assess the law and order situation.

A petition was filed in India's top court challenging the lockdown. Opposition Congress party activist Tehseen Poonawalla said he expected the Supreme Court to hear his petition on Thursday seeking immediate lifting of curfew and other restrictions, including blocking of phone lines, internet and news channels in Kashmir.

He also sought the immediate release of Kashmiri leaders who have been detained, including Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.

Meanwhile, Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, who had vehemently opposed the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's decision to revoke occupied Kashmir's special status, was reportedly detained at the Srinagar airport today and was asked to return to New Delhi, India Today reported.

State-run All India Radio, which reported on the arrests without details, also said that cross-border firing by Indian and Pakistani troops hit the Rajouri sector of occupied Kashmir late on Wednesday.

Activist Ali Mohammed told the New Delhi Television news channel that he has been organising ambulances to carry sick poor people to hospitals in Srinagar, the main city in Indian-occupied Kashmir, as local residents can't even use phones to ask for medical help.

“It's hell,” a patient told the television channel.

In response to India's action, Pakistan on Wednesday said it would downgrade its diplomatic ties with New Delhi, ask the Indian ambassador to leave and suspend trade. Prime Minister Imran Khan told Pakistan's National Security Committee that his government will use all diplomatic channels “to expose the brutal Indian racist regime” and human rights violations in Kashmir, the government's statement said.

India regretted Pakistan's steps and said in a statement that "the intention behind these measures is obviously to present an alarming picture to the world of our bilateral ties". It urged Pakistan to review its decision to downgrade ties so that normal channels for diplomatic communications are preserved.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1498785/india-arrests-over-500-as-occupied-kashmir-clampdown-challenged

 

[Abdullah719]

Migrants begin fleeing occupied Kashmir; protests against India's decision on Ladakh hit Kargil

As a complete security lockdown in occupied Kashmir entered its fourth day on Thursday, reports emerged that hundreds of poor migrant workers have begun fleeing the Himalayan region to return to their far-away villages in northern and eastern India.

Migrant workers in occupied Kashmir complained on Wednesday that their Kashmiri employers didn't pay them any salary as security forces began imposing tight travel restrictions over the weekend and asked them to leave their jobs.

On Wednesday, workers crowded the railroad station at Jammu, the winter capital of the state, as they waited for trains bound for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. They carried their belongings on their heads and under their arms, tied in bedsheets.

One worker, Jagdish Mathur, said many people walked for miles on a highway and hitched rides on army trucks and buses from Srinagar to Jammu, a distance of 160 miles.

"We haven't eaten properly for the past four days," said Mathur, adding that he doesn't have money to buy a rail ticket to take him to his village in eastern Bihar state.

"The government should help me."

Surjit Singh, a carpenter, told the New Delhi television channel that he was returning home because of occupied Kashmir's security lockdown.

Every year, tens of thousands of people travel to occupied Kashmir from various Indian states looking for work, mainly masonry, carpentry and agriculture. Whenever the security situation deteriorates, they return homes.

Protest in Kargil

Meanwhile, India's surprise move to carve out sparsely populated Ladakh from occupied Kashmir to make it a territory directly controlled by New Delhi has been met with protests in Kargil, a Muslim-majority border city in Ladakh that identifies culturally with Kashmir, suggesting that the Hindu nationalist-led government's plan to redraw the country's political map will be far from easy.

While some Ladakhi lawmakers from Leh, the main city in the heavily Buddhist region with historic ties to Tibet, hailed the move as a long-overdue response to their requests for separation from the region, organisations in Kargil condemned the decision.

Mountainous occupied Kashmir comprises three regions — Hindu-majority Jammu, Muslim-majority Kashmir and heavily Buddhist Ladakh.

After Kashmir's special status was scrapped, Kargil's religious and political organisations met to discuss the changes, releasing a statement condemning the Indian government for acting "without the consent from the people".

The groups called for a district-wide shutdown on Tuesday as a "token of public resentment against the unjustful decision taken by the union government".

Schools and shops were shuttered, and streets were empty except for a group of demonstrators who marched while shouting slogans decrying the separation of Ladakh.

The Imam Khomeini Memorial Trust, Kargil, an influential religious group in the region, supported the protest. The chairman of the trust, Sheikh Sadiq Rajai, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that the new law amounts to an attack.

"It's an attack on our identity. This decision will disempower our people," he said.

Former Kargil lawmaker Asgar Ali Karbali also condemned the Indian government's move to divide the region, referring to it as "a black day in the history of India". Karbali said he doesn't accept the decision, and that others in Kashmir also won't.

"It was the people of Leh that were demanding that Ladakh be freed from the Kashmir region over a long time, not us. Kargil is against the division of Jammu and Kashmir on the basis of religion, language and region. The move is undemocratic," Karbali said.

Kargil, nestled among sharp hillsides and rough terrain, is where India and Pakistan fought a war in 1999. The town once served as an important trade and transit centre in the Pan-Asian trade network.

The people of Kargil have opposed Ladakh's decades-long demand to be severed from Kashmir. The friction between the two districts has occasionally sparked clashes between the two communities.

Despite Kargil's opposition, Ladakh's elected representative to the Indian parliament described the mood in the region as celebratory.

Tsering Namgyal drew thumping applause in the lower house on Tuesday when he said that Ladakhis long to be an inseparable part of India.

In a tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi complimented Namgyal, saying he had "coherently presented aspirations of our sisters and brothers from Ladakh". Ladakhi Buddhists have often claimed that the region's policies were Kashmir-centric and discriminated against them.

The Gyalwang Drukpa, the spiritual head of the Ladakh-based Drukpa Order of Buddhism, wrote to Modi to express gratitude.

Still, residents of Kargil on Wednesday said they felt more affinity with Kashmir than Leh, and worried that the decision could lead to a flood of people from outside the region damaging their pristine landscape.

"Our jobs are in danger. Now people from India will come here and settle. Our jobs will go to them. We were never consulted before India took this decision," Ghulam Mustafa said.

Repealing Article 370

India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stripped Kashmiris of the special autonomy they had for seven decades through a rushed presidential order on Monday.

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.

Home Minister Amit Shah also moved a bill to bifurcate the state into two union territories — Jammu Kashmir as one and Himalayan Ladakh region as the other — directly ruled by New Delhi.

Ahead of the move, communications were cut off and thousands of troops were also deployed amid fears of a violent reaction. Following the government's decision, Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah, former chief ministers of Indian-occupied Kashmir, along with two other prominent political leaders were also arrested.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1498777/m...-against-indias-decision-on-ladakh-hit-kargil

 

[MenInG]

The India media blackout wont work - too many people to control - should have thought about it before opening this wound.

 

[Zahid87]

The India media blackout wont work - too many people to control - should have thought about it before opening this wound.

Its a question of volume. Full blackout is obviously impossible in today's world.

But if they can manage to block out the majority of unwanted news, its a success right? Look at Pakistan's media for example, or China when it comes to East Turkestan.