Kashmir: India’s ‘draconian’ blackout sets worrying precedent, warns UN

[Abdullah719]

The unprecedented communications blackout imposed on Indian-administered Kashmir could signal a departure in the way democratic states clamp down on information in contentious areas, the UN’s special rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye, has said.

Kaye’s warning came as India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi made his first public statement since the decision to remove Kashmir’s special status was made, describing it as the start of a “new era” that will help end decades of terrorism and separatism.

“There’s something about this shutdown that is draconian in a way other shutdowns usually are not,” Kaye told the Guardian.

On Friday the territory faces its fifth day in a lockdown that was imposed hours before the Indian government revoked Kashmir’s special status on Monday – stripping away the autonomy it was granted in exchange for joining the Indian union after independence in 1947.

Communications are often blocked in Indian-administered Kashmir, but the current clampdown is unprecedented in a time of relative peace. Unlike previous instances, landline phones and cable TV have been cut off. A strict curfew also means people are unable to leave their homes during the day, while only limited movement has been allowed at night.

“I can’t recall a situation were there has been a total blackout of not only the two-way multi-point communication systems that we are familiar with now – anything on the internet, WhatsApp, etc – but also the one-direction communications like TV,” Kaye said.

“That’s pretty extensive and one of my concerns would be – in part because this is happening in a democratic state – it could be seen as a new departure for many states that are thinking about how to clamp down on the flow of information.”

He added that it was hard to identify a set of circumstances where a country shutting down access to the internet, especially for an extensive period of time, was legal under international law.

Before Monday’s announcement, thousands of extra troops were deployed to Kashmir, where the government is likely to face major opposition. An insurgency against Indian rule has been waged for decades, and tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict. Despite a heavy security presence and strict curfew, protests have occurred.

The restrictions have prevented people from calling for ambulances, accessing information or checking on family members. On Thursday, an opposition activist filed a petition in India’s top court challenging the security lockdown and communications block.

In his first address to the nation since Monday’s announcement in parliament that article 370 – the part of the constitution guaranteeing Jammu and Kashmir special status – had been revoked, Modi described the changes as historic and attempted to assure residents that the situation will soon become normal.

“The scrapping of article 370 is the beginning of a new era,” Modi said. Kashmir’s special status had been used by Pakistan “as a weapon to incite people of the region against India” but now India would rid the region of “terrorism and terrorists”, he added. “There will be a lot of development,” he said. “All the citizens will be given their rights.”

Modi said the “mainstreaming” of the Kashmiri people with the rest of the nation would expedite development and create new jobs with investment from public and private companies, and even suggested that a cinema industry could flourish. “I think the whole world will come and shoot their films there,” he said. “[This will] bring employment for the people there.”

In other developments on Thursday, the state-run All India Radio reported that more than 500 people had been arrested since Monday’s clampdown and Pakistan suspended a key train service with India, as tensions between the rivals soared.

A Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman also said authorities were considering approaching the international court of justice for a case against India. The two countries have fought two of their three wars over control of Kashmir.

Indian-administered Kashmir has had special status since 1954, giving it a degree of autonomy including its own constitution, as well as rules that prevented people from outside the state buying land in the territory. Many Kashmiris believe this is crucial to protecting the demography and traditions of India’s only Muslim-majority state. Delhi has insisted the ending of autonomy for the region is an internal matter.

On Wednesday, one man arriving at Delhi’s airport from Srinagar, Kashmir’s biggest city, described the state as being “like a prison”. Soayib Qureshi, a Delhi-based lawyer, who arrived on the same day, said he had been given a handwritten boarding pass to take the flight because systems were down.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...nications-blackout-is-draconian-says-un-envoy

 

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A comprehensive article from New York Times covering the geo political perspectives to the unfolding situation in Kashmir...

Pakistan Runs Out of Options as India Tightens Grip on Kashmir

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/09/world/asia/kashmir-india-pakistan.html

By Maria Abi-Habib
Aug. 9, 2019

NEW DELHI — The dispute over Kashmir has long been a flash point for war between India and Pakistan, with each nuclear-armed country holding the threat of retaliation over the other. But when India stripped the Indian-controlled region of Kashmir of its autonomy this week, Pakistan’s reaction appeared to be limited to high-level hand-wringing.

As Pakistan marks its independence day next week, it increasingly feels like a nation with its back against the wall, with few options to protect its existential interests. Its economy is teetering on the brink of collapse, and its international allies have either stayed silent over Kashmir or defected in support of India.

A conventional military reaction is probably too costly as Pakistan seeks to tighten its belt to shore up its finances. And one of the most effective strategies Pakistan has traditionally employed — using an array of militant groups as proxies to keep neighbors in check — has become a liability, amid the threat of international sanctions. (Pakistan has denied that it uses militant groups to achieve its foreign policy objectives.)

“The economy is hindering Pakistan’s options. As they head to a recession can they really afford a war right now?” said Arif Rafiq, the president of Vizier Consulting, a consulting firm on South Asian political and security issues. “Their capacity to bear the cost of a full-fledged conflict with India over Kashmir, whether via insurgent networks or conventionally — there just are not a lot of options Pakistan has.”

Even Afghan Taliban leaders, who have long been sheltered in Pakistan, seem to have turned their backs on their ally of late.

Last year, Pakistan, in an effort to end its global isolation, agreed to help the United States end its war in Afghanistan by delivering the Taliban leadership to the table for peace talks. In doing so, Pakistan employed one of its greatest sources of leverage with the United States. Those talks are now nearing a conclusion, with American negotiators sitting across the table from their Taliban counterparts and aiming to reach a settlement soon.

In recent days, several Pakistani government officials have demanded that their country end its cooperation in the peace talks to protest American silence over India’s elimination of Kashmir’s autonomy. But the Taliban on Thursday issued a forceful statement warning against any meddling.

“Linking the issue of Kashmir with that of Afghanistan by some parties will not aid in improving the crisis at hand because the issue of Afghanistan is not related, nor should Afghanistan be turned into the theater of competition between other countries,” the Taliban statement read.

The outcome of the peace talks and Pakistan’s role in them will likely influence whether the country finds itself blacklisted internationally over its continued support of terrorist organizations, a move that could make or break its faltering economy. The Paris-based group that monitors terrorism financing, the Financial Action Task Force, will vote in October on whether Pakistan has done enough to crack down on militant networks at home.

Pakistan hopes to make the case that it has moved against militant groups and should be taken off the gray list on which the watchdog placed it last year. Pakistan deeply fears it could be blacklisted, denied access to international financial markets at a time when it desperately needs loans to stay afloat. If Pakistan is blacklisted, it could tip the economy into recession.

Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan seemed worried about the lack of options to force India to walk back its new Kashmir policy.Meeting with Pakistani journalists on Thursday, Mr. Khan dismissed using “jihadi organizations” against India in Kashmir. “There are more disadvantages than advantages,” Mr. Khan said, according to Amber Rahim Shamsi, a reporter for Samaa TV who attended the meeting.
The possibility of international sanctions also seemed to weigh on Mr. Khan.

Pakistan has taken every step to get itself out of the baggage of the past,’’ the prime minister told the group of journalists, according to a second account of the meeting.

He said the government had undertaken “a complete cleansing operation” against terrorist groups. “My government has ensured there is a complete and sincere effort to bring Pakistan out of FATF,” Mr. Khan added, referring to the Financial Action Task Force.

Pakistan’s foreign minister has said he would raise the issue of Kashmir to the United Nations Security Council for a vote. But so far, the country’s closest allies have remained silent on the matter.
Muslim nations have usually supported Pakistan’s claims on Kashmir. But with their own economic and political troubles at home, many have tilted toward India, looking to secure lucrative deals with the ascending economic power.

The biggest blow came from the influential United Arab Emirates, which stated that Kashmir was an internal matter for India, withdrawing any support to raise the issue internationally.

India has long maintained that Kashmir is an internal issue; the disputed territory chose to join India rather than Pakistan during partition in 1947, based on assurances that its autonomy would be maintained. Pakistani forces invaded part of Kashmir and now control that part of the territory.

When Pakistan agreed after the September 11, 2001 attacks to help the United States fight terrorist groups, they asked for a favor in return — American help mediating on Kashmir and pressing India to make concessions. When the United States refused, Pakistan felt betrayed.

Just last month Pakistanis felt more upbeat about their country’s prospects. Mr. Khan had returned from a visit to the White House where he met with Mr. Trump, who promised to intervene on Kashmir. But India’s swift action days later to strip Kashmir of its autonomy plunged Pakistan back into isolation.

“The U.S. has again let us down, and those who were starry-eyed about the American trip have got a wake-up call,” Senator Mushahid Hussain said in a speech this week.

Salman Masood contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.

 

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A comprehensive article from New York Times covering the geo political perspectives to the unfolding situation in Kashmir...

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A comprehensive article from Washington Post too, read at your own leisure.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/worl...13f93e-ba06-11e9-8e83-4e6687e99814_story.html

 

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Back to the topic. The blackout currently in Kashmir is quite extraordinary considering its 21st century and the age of technology.

Depriving people from communications, internet, connection with outside world, etc; in current day and age is an extreme measure and a violation of fundamental human rights i.e. freedom of speech or voicing an opinion.

On the issue of Kashmir, I have seen responses from Indian government and their opposition from parliament, Pakistan's responses in parliament, UN's responses as in OP, etc; however the voice that matters the most hasn't been heard yet and i.e. the voice of Kashmiri people.

A question needs to be asked as to why we can't hear the voice of people who are at the center of this whole saga? What would they say or what would be the message coming from the majority of people from there? The answer is currently blacked out by Indian government but we can fill in the blanks here.

My real concern is the atrocities that would be happening in that region under the cover of this blackout. The UN should send its team of investigators to the region at the earliest so they can see for first hand as to what is the situation there. Surely, Indian government would unilaterally allow for this as they are members of this body themselves and have nothing to hide here.

The longer this gets delayed the worse atrocities would be committed. The reports coming out in the news suggests air lifting of several Kashmiris by army to secluded places. God knows what would be truth that would be revealed when blackout is removed, till then India with continuing blackout is in the wrong here.

 

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CNN's article on blackout of Kashmir

You can read this article. An internet blackout means no-one in Indian-controlled Kashmir can

(CNN)One of the world's most sensitive regions is in the midst of a crisis and could be on the verge of conflict, but the world may not find out what's happening there until it's too late.

An almost complete communications blackout has been imposed in Indian-controlled Kashmir, after the government in Delhi moved to scrap the region's special status, sparking an angry response from Pakistan. The two neighbors have fought numerous times over Kashmir, and the region has been the focus of periodic conflict for almost 70 years.

In the run-up to the revocation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which gave the state of Jammu and Kashmir broad autonomy in setting its own law, except in a limited set of policy areas such as defence and foreign affairs, India sent tens of thousands of additional troops into the state and cut off all internet and phone services. Broadband, mobile internet, text messaging and phone service have all been affected, with residents reduced to digging out old radio sets to tune into the news.

Politicians have reportedly been detained, journalists restricted in their reporting and human rights groups have warned of potential abuses due to the lack of international oversight enabled by the communications blackout.

"A large-scale communication disruption at such a crucial time for Kashmir is an egregious violation of citizens' rights to information from a free press," Aliya Iftikhar, a senior researcher with the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement. "We call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his administration to guarantee that all communication blocks in Kashmir are lifted and that journalists are able to report freely. Communication blocks have no place in a democracy."

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the communications blackout in Jammu and Kashmir. The Press Information Bureau for Jammu and Kashmir also did not respond.

On Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the law change would bring stability and end "separatism, terrorism, dynastic politics and corruption" in Jammu and Kashmir, even as the United Nations warned against taking steps that "could affect the status" of the disputed region.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement that he was "concerned over reports of restrictions on the Indian-side of Kashmir, which could exacerbate the human rights situation in the region."

Blackout state

Internet, social media and messaging blackouts are a common occurrence in Indian-controlled Kashmir. There have been 59 partial or complete blackouts in 2019 so far, almost equal to the total number last year, according to the Software Freedom Law Center, India, an NGO. That works out to more than one blackout per week in Kashmir for the first 30 weeks of the year.

That makes Jammu and Kashmir the most cut off Indian state, in a country which already leads the world in internet blackouts. There were 87 major blackouts across India last year -- accounting for more than half of all blackouts globally -- and dozens of smaller scale disruptions, according to monitor Access Now.

Research by NetBlocks, which monitors internet disruptions around the world, suggests that the current Kashmir internet blackout has been instituted at the "backbone level." That refers to the fiber optic cables, modems and switches which form the fundamental infrastructure of the internet, controlling connections between users and internet service providers (ISPs) in Kashmir and the wider country.

A blackout is the most blunt tactic for online control, completely severing communications at the core level. Companies which manage the country's internet infrastructure can be ordered to cut off certain regions or throttle connections from them, making internet service incredibly slow.

Compared to other Indian states and territories, connections between Kashmir and the rest of the Indian internet are relatively sparse and pass through a small number of choke points, making such a blackout easier to achieve. In countries such as the United States, there is a much greater density of fiber optic connections and more service providers controlling them, making it more difficult to order a sudden blackout. The US also has legal restrictions in place against the government easily pulling off such a communications shutdown.

In coming days, the Indian government may choose to restore partial service to Kashmir, to allow people to reassure relatives they are okay and avoid continued economic damage. Then it may shift to blocking specific sites and platforms, such as WhatsApp and other social media, as has been done in the past.

This is achieved by blocking those platforms at the IP or server level, similar to how China's Great Firewall works. Such blocks can often be bypassed by using a virtual private network (VPN), an encrypted tunnel which masks traffic sent across it so it appears to be benign. These too can be blocked, as they are frequently in China during sensitive periods, though doing so brings with it its own problems due to the widespread use of VPNs by businesses.

Communication confusion

An internet blackout isn't just annoying, it can be terrifying, cutting people off from key information and spreading concern and disinformation.

"Access to the internet is a human right," said Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, an Indian NGO. "Massive economic, social and individual harm caused when it is disrupted. But the human costs are much deeper. Cutting off Internet access prevents people from using the Internet to reach out for help, and makes them panic."
When Sri Lanka cut off social media in the wake of terrorist attacks earlier this year, it created an information vacuum that was filled by fake news and prevented legitimate criticism of the government -- which later admitted to missing clear warnings of the attacks -- from being aired.

"Shutdowns are a blunt instrument for interrupting the spread of disinformation online," Adrian Shahbaz, a researcher at Washington-based Freedom House, told CNN at the time. "Citizens are denied access to communication tools at a time when they need them the most to dispel rumors, check in with family, or avoid dangerous areas."

In a paper in February, Jan Rydzak, an internet policy expert at Stanford University, found that internet shutdowns and social media blocks in India were followed by "a clear increase in violent protests (and) have very ambiguous effects on peaceful demonstrations."

Internet blackouts and disruptions can also cause major economic damage. According to a 2018 study by the Delhi-based think tank ICRIER, a combined 16,315 hours of internet shutdowns between 2012 and 2017 cost the India economy upwards of $3 billion.

Kashmir is already one of the poorest areas of India, and frequent blackouts have not helped its economy in recent years. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed for India to be a world leader in technology and internet services, but startups in Kashmir have suffered due to the constant disruptions.

"We ended up paying employees even during the ban when there was literally no work done. It is frustrating at times," Kashmiri startup founder Rauf Bashir told Indian business platform MoneyControl last year.

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/08/tech/kashmir-internet-blackout-india-pakistan-intl-hnk/index.html

 

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CNN's article on blackout of Kashmir



https://edition.cnn.com/2019/08/08/tech/kashmir-internet-blackout-india-pakistan-intl-hnk/index.html

I would urge people to read this article on CNN's website. This is such a though provoking piece of information and some of the questions raised in this article are so genuine while their implications are so dark and terrifying.

Some of the extracts of article over which I want pro-blackout people to respond.

"Communication blocks have no place in a democracy."
I feel everyone not only on this forum but unilaterally should agree that communication block is a dictatorial move.

"That makes Jammu and Kashmir the most cut off Indian state, in a country which already leads the world in internet blackouts."
An internet is a basic human rights tool nowadays and this is blatant violation of that.

"An internet blackout isn't just annoying, it can be terrifying, cutting people off from key information and spreading concern and disinformation"
This is the key piece in article. Disinformation spreading across Kashmir and disinformation for rest of India and disinformation for rest of world. Unless there is independent and free journalism and reporting the real picture would never be available and henceforth India is controlling the information flow and manipulation of information flow is disinformation.