Prominent politicians in Indian-administered Kashmir have been placed under house arrest, while communications to Kashmir valley have been cut off following a security crackdown and fears of unrest.
Phone and internet services are reportedly down in Kashmir valley, where public gatherings have been banned and schools closed.
Last week thousands of tourists and pilgrims were ordered to leave the area, after the Indian government warned of a terror threat posed to pilgrim routes.
A major security build up, including the deployment of 10,000 extra troops, has prompted fears that Delhi is preparing to scrap Kashmir’s special status, which prevents people from outside of the state from buying land in the territory. Many Kashmiris fear that abolishing the state’s special status would fundamentally change the demography of the Muslim-majority territory.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has repeatedly pledged to scrap such rules, though analysts warn that doing so would create instability and heighten tension with Pakistan.
In the early hours of Monday, several political leaders said they had been placed under house arrest, including Jammu and Kashmir’s former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti and Sajjad Lone, chairman of People’s Conference.
On Sunday evening, Omar Abdullah, the scion of a prominent political family in Kashmir, and former chief minister in the state, said he believed he would be placed under house arrest. Other “mainstream leaders” – meaning Kashmiri politicians who have formed alliances with parties such as the BJP – would be detained, he added.
Political leaders in Kashmir met on Sunday, where they vowed to protect Kashmir’s special status, and warned against an escalation of tensions between Pakistan and India.
Kashmir is claimed by India and Pakistan in full and ruled in part by both. An insurgency on the Indian-administered side has been ongoing for three decades, and tens of thousands of people have been killed.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, will chair a cabinet meetingon Monday morning, when an announcement is expected.
Before internet services were cut, Mufti said on Twitter: “How ironic that elected representatives like us who fought for peace are under house arrest. The world watches as people & their voices are being muzzled in J&K. The same Kashmir that chose a secular democratic India is facing oppression of unimaginable magnitude. Wake up India.”
Abdullah called for people to stay safe and remain calm. “To the people of Kashmir, we don’t know what is in store for us but I am a firm believer that what ever Almighty Allah has planned it is always for the better, we may not see it now but we must never doubt his ways,” he said on Twitter.
Over the weekend, people in Indian-administered Kashmir queued for hours outside petrol stations and cash machines, as curfews and evacuations continued to be imposed on hospitals and educational institutions.
Here's the gist: during the last few days, tens of thousands of Indian troops have been deployed to Jammu and Kashmir, following an order for foreigners to leave that part of the country as well as moves to cut off all communications between Kashmir and the outside world. Leading Kashmiri politicians (a number of whom are allied to the ruling BJP) have also been placed under house arrest, all for the coup de grace: the Modi administration, fresh off a second election victory against the INC in 5 years and riding high upon patriotic feeling for which its recent skirmish with Pakistan was both symptom and outlet, has announced to its parliament its intention of repealing Article 370 of the Indian constitution, giving significant autonomy and full exemption from the rest of the Indian constitution to Jammu & Kashmir, to be replaced by a bill which would split the present region into two parts: Jammu & Kashmir, which would be a union territory with its own legislature, and Ladakh, also a territory but lacking a legislature of its own.
Goodness knows what will happen next, though the sinking pit in my gut tells me a great bloodbath will soon commence, out of sight, out of mind. Why else would the Indian army be deployed in such numbers, tensions with Pakistan or no?
On a related note, too: do all of you guys have a fucking death wish?
