India: Top court to hear petitions on Kashmir in Oct.

By Shuriah Niazi

NEW DELHI (AA) - A five-member judge of the Supreme Court of India will begin hearing from the first week of October the petitions challenging the government move of scrapping the special status of Jammu and Kashmir.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi issued notices to the government and Jammu and Kashmir administration on bunch of petitions that also challenged the detention of Kashmiri leaders and sought removal of restrictions in the region.

"We know what to do. We have passed the order [about the issuance of notices], we are not going to change it,” the bench said, as the government contended that there was no need for issuance of notice in the matter, according to local broadcaster News18.

The apex court allowed head of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Sitaram Yechury and a Kashmiri student to visit Jammu and Kashmir.

The student from Delhi will be provided police protection to meet his parents in Anantnag district.

Yechury will meet his party colleague and former member of Legislative Assembly Mohammed Yusuf Tarigami in the state. The court allowed Yechury to meet Tarigami but warned him against using the visit for any political purposes.

Jammu and Kashmir is under near-complete lockdown since Aug. 5 after India scrapped the special provisions, according to several rights group, including the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International.

India blocked communications and imposed strict restrictions to thwart any rebellion while political leaders in the region have been detained as the right groups repeatedly called on New Delhi to lift the restrictions and release political detainees.

- Disputed region

From 1954 until Aug. 5, 2019, Jammu and Kashmir had special provisions under which it enacted its own laws. The provisions also protected the region's citizenship law, which barred outsiders from settling in and owning land in the territory.

India and Pakistan both hold Kashmir in parts and claim it in full. China also controls part of the contested region, but it is India and Pakistan who have fought two wars over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights groups, thousands of people have been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.