Thousands protest in occupied Kashmir over new status despite clampdown

[خره مينه لګته وي]

Indian police used tear gas and pellets to fight back at least 10,000 people protesting Delhi's withdrawal of special rights for Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir state in its main city of Srinagar on Friday, a police official and two witnesses said.

The demonstration soon after Friday prayers was the largest since authorities locked down the revolt-torn region five days ago, cutting off telephone and internet services and detaining more than 500 political and separatist leaders.

Seeking to tighten its grip on the region also claimed by neighbouring Pakistan, India this week scrapped Jammu and Kashmir's right to frame its own laws and allowed non-residents to buy property there.

Regional leaders have warned of a backlash in the area, where militants have been fighting Indian rule for nearly 30 years, leading to the deaths of more than 50,000 people.

A large group of people gathered in Srinagar's Soura area, a police officer said, in violation of orders that prohibit the assembly of more than four people.

The crowd was pushed back by police at Aiwa bridge, where a witness said tear gas and pellets were used against them. “Some women and children even jumped into the water,” a witness said at Srinagars Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, where pellet victims were admitted.

“They (police) attacked us from two sides,” another witness said.

The police officer said 12 people had been admitted to two hospitals in the city after receiving pellet injuries at Soura, taking the total injured in the protests this week to at least 30.

“There were around 10,000 people at the protest in Soura,” the police officer said. “This was the biggest so far.”

Thousands of extra paramilitary police were deployed across Kashmir just before the sweeping measures were announced on Monday to prevent large-scale protests.

Addressing the nation on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had acted in Kashmir to help develop the region and that he hoped it would lead to investment and more job opportunities.

His Hindu nationalist-led party has long campaigned for abrogating Kashmir's special privileges in the constitution, which it sees as an appeasement to Muslims and a hindrance to its own development.

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman, Raveesh Kumar, played down the unrest, which he suggested was temporary.

“Just outside Srinagar things have really come back to normal,” he said.Kumar added, “People are going about their business, vehicles are plying normally. If we are confident of maintaining the law and order, I think those restrictions will be relaxed, I'm quite sure.”

Arrests
But the police officer, who requested anonymity since he is not authorised to speak to the media, said that political detentions in the wake of the Modi government's decision to revoke Kashmir's special rights were continuing.

“Over 500 people are now arrested since Sunday,” he said, including former chief ministers, ministers, lawmakers and leaders and workers from political parties and separatist groups.

Modi's party and even some top opposition leaders have welcomed the decision to absorb Kashmir fully into India, and it has brought him support across the country.

Within Kashmir, officials are hoping anger will die down. On Friday, they eased restrictions to allow residents to offer prayers in neighbourhood mosques and said they were making arrangements for Eid, that falls on Monday.

The top administrative official of the Kashmir Valley, Baseer Khan, said that essential commodities including food, grains and meat, would be trucked into villages by Sunday.

Khan also said authorities would set up public phone booths covering every district, since communications lines have been severed by the government anticipating widespread protests.

“More than 300 phone booths will be established in a day or two at landmark points,” he said.

Khan added that all medical services in the valley were working normally, although when Reuters visited two major hospitals and a smaller facility, officials said that doctors and staff were having difficulties reaching work.

Pakistan has downgraded diplomatic ties with India and suspended trade in anger at its latest move.

On Friday, senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said China was gravely concerned about the situation in Kashmir, the cause of two of three wars between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

Wang met Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Beijing and assured him that China would continue to support Pakistan to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
--------------------------------

dawn news

 

[KeyBORED Warrior]

Indian police used tear gas and pellets to fight back at least 10,000 people protesting Delhi's withdrawal of special rights for Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir state in its main city of Srinagar on Friday, a police official and two witnesses said.

The demonstration soon after Friday prayers was the largest since authorities locked down the revolt-torn region five days ago, cutting off telephone and internet services and detaining more than 500 political and separatist leaders.

Seeking to tighten its grip on the region also claimed by neighbouring Pakistan, India this week scrapped Jammu and Kashmir's right to frame its own laws and allowed non-residents to buy property there.

Regional leaders have warned of a backlash in the area, where militants have been fighting Indian rule for nearly 30 years, leading to the deaths of more than 50,000 people.

A large group of people gathered in Srinagar's Soura area, a police officer said, in violation of orders that prohibit the assembly of more than four people.

The crowd was pushed back by police at Aiwa bridge, where a witness said tear gas and pellets were used against them. “Some women and children even jumped into the water,” a witness said at Srinagars Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, where pellet victims were admitted.

“They (police) attacked us from two sides,” another witness said.

The police officer said 12 people had been admitted to two hospitals in the city after receiving pellet injuries at Soura, taking the total injured in the protests this week to at least 30.

“There were around 10,000 people at the protest in Soura,” the police officer said. “This was the biggest so far.”

Thousands of extra paramilitary police were deployed across Kashmir just before the sweeping measures were announced on Monday to prevent large-scale protests.

Addressing the nation on Thursday, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he had acted in Kashmir to help develop the region and that he hoped it would lead to investment and more job opportunities.

His Hindu nationalist-led party has long campaigned for abrogating Kashmir's special privileges in the constitution, which it sees as an appeasement to Muslims and a hindrance to its own development.

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman, Raveesh Kumar, played down the unrest, which he suggested was temporary.

“Just outside Srinagar things have really come back to normal,” he said.Kumar added, “People are going about their business, vehicles are plying normally. If we are confident of maintaining the law and order, I think those restrictions will be relaxed, I'm quite sure.”

Arrests
But the police officer, who requested anonymity since he is not authorised to speak to the media, said that political detentions in the wake of the Modi government's decision to revoke Kashmir's special rights were continuing.

“Over 500 people are now arrested since Sunday,” he said, including former chief ministers, ministers, lawmakers and leaders and workers from political parties and separatist groups.

Modi's party and even some top opposition leaders have welcomed the decision to absorb Kashmir fully into India, and it has brought him support across the country.

Within Kashmir, officials are hoping anger will die down. On Friday, they eased restrictions to allow residents to offer prayers in neighbourhood mosques and said they were making arrangements for Eid, that falls on Monday.

The top administrative official of the Kashmir Valley, Baseer Khan, said that essential commodities including food, grains and meat, would be trucked into villages by Sunday.

Khan also said authorities would set up public phone booths covering every district, since communications lines have been severed by the government anticipating widespread protests.

“More than 300 phone booths will be established in a day or two at landmark points,” he said.

Khan added that all medical services in the valley were working normally, although when Reuters visited two major hospitals and a smaller facility, officials said that doctors and staff were having difficulties reaching work.

Pakistan has downgraded diplomatic ties with India and suspended trade in anger at its latest move.

On Friday, senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said China was gravely concerned about the situation in Kashmir, the cause of two of three wars between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan.

Wang met Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in Beijing and assured him that China would continue to support Pakistan to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
--------------------------------

dawn news

I was waiting for someone to upload this. Just saw another video by Al Jazeera news which clearly said in un equivocal terms that 1000s of people took to the streets protesting against the Act and scores were injured which were taken to Srinagar's largest hospital. The reporting was done by some indian lady from delhi working for al jazeera. I was surprised by her accurate depiction of things.

 

[Ghareeb_Da_Baal]

so i thought the butcher in his speech said it was a move to quell the separatists..seems like its having the opposite effect. Now everyone, including India's former posses have turned against Indian occupation as well. They say its back to 1948. #suxsforhindia

 

[SIPRA]

Time to show and demonstrate a united stand for the Kashmiris.

 

[خره مينه لګته وي]

Indian troops fire tear gas as mass protests erupt in Srinagar
Troops fire in the air as thousands rally in Indian-administered Kashmir's main city to denounce region's status change.

Al-Jazeera
------------------------------------------

In Iran's capital, the leader of Friday prayers cautioned India over its sudden downgrading of Indian-administered Kashmir, the Hindu-majority nation's only Muslim-majority region.

Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader and Tehran's Friday prayer leader, told hundreds of worshippers that India's revocation of disputed Kashmir's special autonomous status was "an ugly move."


YahooNews

------------------

 

[masterchief_mirza]

Kashmir is Pakistan and Pakistan is Kashmir.

 

[hussain0216]

The Indians knowing democracy would end Indian rule have tried to use oppression and dictatorial action to force occupation

The Kashmiris hate Indians and now is the time to really support Kashmir against Indian oppression

 

[خره مينه لګته وي]

Modi defends the Kashmir decision

But at times his speech seemed willfully disconnected from reality. He spoke about reducing Kashmir’s isolation, even as the mountainous valley’s internet, mobile service and landlines were disabled.

On the ground: Protests exploded in several parts of Kashmir, and residents in the city of Srinagar said at least three people had been killed in demonstrations.

Human rights activists said as many as 500 people had been detained in nighttime raids and, according to Indian news outlets, some families are beginning to run out of food.

---------
source nytimes

 

[خره مينه لګته وي]

Kashmiri women shout slogans and march on a street after Friday prayers in Srinagar, Kashmir, on Friday. (Dar Yasin/AP)


SRINAGAR, India — The protesters gathered by the thousands after Friday prayers and set off from a mosque in the Kashmiri capital of Srinagar, chanting slogans about freedom. Security forces told them to turn back, but they refused and sat down in the road, six eyewitnesses said. Not long after, the firing began.

The protest — in which at least eight people were injured from shotgun pellet injuries — was one of the largest displays of public anger against India’s abrupt move this week to strip Kashmir of its autonomy and statehood. The step plunged Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority region, into uncertainty and led to a diplomatic breakdown with rival Pakistan.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the decision to alter Kashmir’s status of as a “new dawn” for residents of the troubled region. But since the announcement Monday, much of Kashmir has felt more like a prison, with severe limits on movement and an unprecedented communications shutdown that has restricted contact with the outside world.


In Srinagar, residents have been unable to make telephone calls or connect to the Internet. Thousands of security forces patrol the city’s streets at ubiquitous checkpoints. Public meetings of more than four people are banned, and schools and colleges remain shut. Hundreds of people have been detained to contain possible violence, according to local media reports.

Authorities have stepped in with temporary measures to help assuage the growing discontent. Outside a government office, people started lining up early in the morning to use a helpline service connecting anxious residents to their family members in other parts of the country. There were more than 100 people waiting for a single phone. By noon, the protracted wait led to an eruption of anger against authorities.

“Even in jails, people are allowed to communicate,” said Bilal Ahmed, a hotel owner who had been waiting for four hours and was in tears because he could not reach his teenage daughter studying in Mumbai. “What if she is in some need, and I can’t reach her?”

In Soura, a neighborhood in the northern part of Srinagar on the edge of Anchar Lake, men, women and children gathered after Friday prayers and began marching in violation of prohibitory orders. “This land is ours!” they cried, according to video footage reviewed by The Washington Post. “What do we want? Freedom!”

While the Himalayan region of Kashmir has been divided between India, Pakistan and China for the last 70 years, many Kashmiris in India’s portion have sought either a degree of autonomy or outright independence. Militants have fought a long-running insurgency against Indian rule.

After the protesters demanded they be allowed to go ahead, eyewitnesses said, the police first fired in the air. Then they began firing tear gas canisters and shotguns carrying pellet rounds at the crowd. “It was mayhem,” said Imran Elahi, a 29-year old local journalist. “Some people ran into alleys [and] some began throwing stones at the forces.”

Some of the injured were rushed to the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, a nearby hospital. Asif Mohammed, 16, who had a pellet injury in his leg, said the firing was “unprovoked.” A senior police official did not respond to requests for comment on the incident.

Even as people were counting the number of injured, another Soura local was brought in with his face peppered with pellet marks from a separate incident where police fired at stone-throwing protesters. A restless crowd barged into the hospital following the stretcher.

As the overcast day darkened into night, the main road outside the hospital began to fill up with protesters. Stones, sticks and the remnants of burned tires lay scattered on the ground.

No prayers were held Friday at the city’s iconic Jamia Masjid, where protesters have often pelted stones at security forces after weekly prayers. The nearby streets were dotted with soldiers in riot gear every 50 yards, their faces tense and uncertain.

Indian security personnel walk on a street in Srinagar on Friday, as widespread restrictions on movement and a telecommunications blackout remained in place. (Str/AFP/Getty Images)

In a neighboring lane, Shehzada, who uses one name, and her two children had not slept. At 2 a.m. they were woken by a loud thumping at their steel gate. It was the police looking for her school-aged son, who had previously been detained for throwing stones at security forces. When they discovered that her son was not there, they took away her husband instead, she said.

The unprecedented events of recent days have “pushed us to the wall,” said Shehzada, warning that India’s tactics would further antagonize young Kashmiris. “But for now we have to focus on survival.”

With the major Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha approaching on Monday, Kashmiris are uncertain about whether the restrictions on communication and movement will be lifted to allow them to celebrate the holiday with friends and family. On Friday, Zahoor Ahmad Ganai was attempting to sell sheep on a roadside, which are traditionally sacrificed on the holiday, but finding no takers.

He said that Kashmiris feel cheated by India’s move to strip the region of its semiautonomous rights. “Everything is over,” he said. “This is the worst Eid Kashmir will see.”


--------------------------

Joanna Slater in New Delhi contributed reporting. Adnan Bhat contributed reporting from Srinagar.


The Washington Post

 

[خره مينه لګته وي]

In a neighboring lane, Shehzada, who uses one name, and her two children had not slept. At 2 a.m. they were woken by a loud thumping at their steel gate. It was the police looking for her school-aged son, who had previously been detained for throwing stones at security forces. When they discovered that her son was not there, they took away her husband instead, she said.

Coward Indiots are afraid of stones -- & they were sharing fake pics & videos that Kashmiris are happy - & no justice for those whose loved ones have disappeared & 10k unmarked graves + Rapes + torture of Kashmiris but but let's arrest A School Going Kid ?? Shameless Creatures... Shame on You India.

 

[Mutakalim]

True picture of rising, shining, secular, super power, Bharat Maata is being displayed at international stage. Good riddance.

Coward Indiots are afraid of stones -- & they were sharing fake pics & videos that Kashmiris are happy - & no justice for those whose loved ones have disappeared & 10k unmarked graves + Rapes + torture of Kashmiris but but let's arrest A School Going Kid ?? Shameless Creatures... Shame on You India.

Besides complaining what have we done for these poor Muslims? We all will be held accountable in afterlife for this cowardice act.

 

[YeBeWarned]

Kashmiri's needs to do more than that .

 

[Yaseen1]

There is also a high panic in indian punjab after revoking 370 and I have seen video of many sikhs in india protesting in indian punjab.

 

[Ghareeb_Da_Baal]

#downwithkanjaristan

 

[1Paki$tani]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1159943655831924737