Kashmir remains cut off from outer world

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ANKARA – A day after India changed the status quo of Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir, the region remains cut off, from the outer world.

Anadolu Agency found it hard to get in touch with journalists or common people on ground, due to communication blockade, enforced by the Indian government.

Internet, cell and landline phones have been snapped, while restrictions have been imposed, since Sunday night.

The unprecedented measures taken by the nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi came, as it abrogated the “special status” granted to erstwhile “Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir” when it had “acceded to the Union of India” in 1947 to protect its identity and demography.

A Kashmiri passenger who reached New Delhi on Tuesday, told Anadolu Agency that he had to use ambulance, to move out of Srinagar city, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir to reach airport.

“There are severe restrictions in place and streets are under the control of paramilitary CRPF and BSF personnel,” he said wishing anonymity.

Most of the co-passengers on way to Delhi were non-Kashmiris, he added. Reports of delays in flights from Delhi to Kashmir were also received, given that very less people are travelling to the disputed region.

Ahead of tabling the legislations in parliament, Modi government had asked tourists, Hindu pilgrims and non-Kashmiris, to leave the disputed territory, as soon as possible.

More than 40,000 additional troops were sent to the region, to quell possible protests against the abrogation of special status.

- Tense Srinagar

Muzamil Jaleel, a senior Kashmiri journalist, working in a leading Indian newspaper, who travelled from Kashmir to New Delhi on Tuesday, vividly described the tense situation in Kashmir. He wrote on his Facebook wall that situation was much worse than it had been in 1846, when Hindu Dogras had invaded and annexed Srinagar.

“It is much worse than in 1846. The city of Srinagar is of soldiers and spools of concertina wire… Phones - mobiles and landlines - have been disconnected. Internet is off. There is no money in ATMs. A very strict curfew has been imposed across Kashmir. I could only move around, with lot of difficulty in uptown Srinagar. I have no information outside that small part of the city,” he wrote. He further wrote that Kashmir has been turned invisible, even for those living inside Kashmir.

Kashmiris living outside have been pleading on social media seeking resumption of communication lines.

“Already 40 HOURS and for how long are we supposed not to speak with our parents, relatives, friends living in the CURFEWED #Kashmir (sic) And that's the story of every Kashmiri living outside the valley. We share same anxiety!” wrote one Kashmiri reporter based in India, requesting Prime Minister Modi to intervene to restore communication.

- Kashmiri media misses its own story

Due to restrictions and communication blockage, no Srinagar-based newspaper has been published since Monday. The major newspapers and magazines have not updated their websites past two days, missing one of the turning points of Kashmir history.

Last time it was in 2016 that Kashmiri newspapers were shut for three days after massive street protests.

Former Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah claimed he was kept in house arrest and not allowed to proceed to New Delhi, to participate in the debate in the parliament. He represents Srinagar city in Indian parliament. India had already arrested two former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti to disallow protest.

The resistance leadership of Kashmir is already in jails in Kashmir and outside the region including in Delhi’s Tihar jail.

- ‘Scholars put UN Sec Gen on notice’

A group of scholars that included both Kashmiris and non-Kashmiris, wrote an open letter to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, seeking his immediate intervention in the current Kashmir crisis.

“We, the members of Kashmir Scholars Consultative Network, are once again reaching out to you, because of an unprecedented military buildup by the Indian government in Kashmir, and renewed military aggression on the Line of Control,” the letter signed by members of Kashmir Scholars Consultative and Action Network (KSCAN) published online said.

The Kashmiri diaspora living in U.S. rejected the abrogation of the provision of special rights to Jammu and Kashmir.

A joint statement issued by Ghulam Nabi Fai from Washington said that the diaspora will work to protect the unique and historical identity of Jammu and Kashmir against all odds.

“Such attempts are in open contravention of UN resolution #122 adopted on January 24, 1957; #123 adopted on February 21, 1957 and #126 adopted on December 2, 1957. These resolutions prohibit any unilateral action to change the disputed nature of the State of Jammu and Kashmir,” the statement added.