India infuriates Pakistan by sending thousands of troops into Kashmir and cutting off the internet after revoking the region’s ‘special status’

• Home Minister Amit Shah announced the revocation of Article 370 this morning
• Article gives Jammu and Kashmir constitution and some decision-making rights
• Some internet and phone services were suspended in restive Himalayan region
• Around seven million people were effected by the black out late on Sunday night
• Pakistan said they will ‘exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps’ 

India has angered Pakistan by revoking Kashmir’s ‘special status’ and sending thousands of troops into the fractious area.

Internet services on mobile phones were also cut to around seven million people in the Himalayan region, where most people oppose Indian rule, yesterday.

This is a common tactic to prevent anti-India demonstrations from being organized and to stop the dissemination of news.   

Home Minister Amit Shah announced the revocation of Article 370 amid an uproar in India’s two houses of parliament.

Large parts of Kashmir were put on lockdown today after India revoked the regions ‘special status’ and sent in thousands of troops. Pictured are military personnel on a street in Jammu 

Late last night government forces laid barricades and wire on roads to cut off neighborhoods in Srinagar, the region’s main city. Pictured are troops with an Indian tourist in Jammu

At the time Kashmir was under a security lockdown keeping thousands of people inside their homes and unable to communicate with the outside world.

Late yesterday in Kashmir, government forces laid steel barricades and razor wire on roads and intersections to cut off neighborhoods in Srinagar, the region’s main city. 

The government issued a security order banning public meetings, rallies and movement and said schools would be closed. 

The security deployment in recent days adds at least 10,000 soldiers and other forces in Kashmir, to what was already one of the world’s most militarized regions.

India also had ordered thousands of tourists and Hindu pilgrims to leave the region.

Home Minister Shah’s statement came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened a cabinet meeting and the government’s top-decision making body on security matters, the Cabinet Committee on Security which he heads.

Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, pictured centre, announced the revocation of Article 370 today. The article gives the gives the disputed region of Kashmir its own constitution and decision-making rights for all matters except for defense, communications and foreign affairs

India had ordered thousands of tourists, pictured some walking to a railway station during restrictions, and Hindu pilgrims to leave Jammu and Kashmir today

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim the region in its entirety. 

Two of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought since their independence from British rule were over Kashmir.

Article 370 of the Constitution, gives Jammu and Kashmir its own constitution and decision-making rights for all matters except for defense, communications and foreign affairs. 

The law also forbids Indians outside the state from permanently settling, buying land, holding local government jobs and securing education scholarships.

Pakistan today condemned India’s move to abolish Kashmir’s special status as ‘illegal’, insisting it was an internationally recognised disputed territory.

‘No unilateral step by the Government of India can change this disputed status… As the party to this international dispute, Pakistan will exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps,’ the foreign ministry said in a statement.

It added that the move, which Islamabad ‘strongly rejects and condemns’, will not ‘ever be acceptable to the people of Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan’. 

Critics of India’s Hindu nationalist-led government see the move as a bid to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers.

According to a copy of the order, the revocation of Article 370 will ‘come into force at once’ and will ‘supersede the Constitution.’

Some internet services on phones were also cut to around seven million people. Pictured is an Indian paramilitary soldier stopping a commuter during curfew like restrictions in Jammu

Tensions have also been growing along the Line of Control with reports of a Pakistani woman being wounded. Security personnel are pictured questioning a motorist in Jammu today

Rebels in Indian-controlled Kashmir have been fighting Indian control since 1989 and around 70,000 people have been killed so far. Pictured are troops in Jammu this morning

Despite the blackout on internet services, Jammu and Kashmir’s former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufi, tweeted that the government’s decision is ‘illegal’ and ‘unconstitutional.’

‘Today marks the darkest day in Indian democracy,’ Mufti wrote.

Shah also introduced the ‘Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill’ which, if passed, will split the state into two union territories.

Jammu and Kashmir would have an elected legislature and Ladakh would be ruled directly by the central government without a legislature of its own.

Currently, the state of Jammu and Kashmir comprises three regions: Hindu-majority Jammu, Muslim-majority Kashmir and Buddhist-majority Ladakh.

Pakistan’s foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, told a Pakistani TV station on Monday from Saudi Arabia, where he is on a pilgrimage to Mecca, that Pakistan will step up diplomatic efforts to prevent the order from taking effect.

‘India is playing a very dangerous game by changing the status of Kashmir through illegal acts,’ he said.

Indian police set up barricades, pictured, in Jammu today. The government has also issued a security order banning public meetings, rallies and movement

Armed soldiers stood guard in Jammu today. Tensions also escalated along the Line of Control that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan this weekend

Paramilitary soldiers stood guard in Srinagar, the summer capital of Kashmir, last night

In Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, hundreds of Kashmiri activists rallied against the change in Kashmir’s status near where India’s embassy is located. Authorities kept demonstrators away from the building because of security concerns.

Ghulam Mohammad Safi, a prominent Kashmiri leader in Pakistan, urged the United Nations and the international community to help Kashmir achieve self-determination.

The president of the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir, Sardar Masood Khan, also rejected the Indian presidential order and said it could lead to a war with Pakistan.

India’s former finance minister, Arun Jaitley, hailed the government’s decision to remove Article 370, praising Modi and Shah for ‘correcting a historical blunder.’

‘A historical wrong has been undone today,’ he tweeted.

Regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir had earlier called attempts to revoke Article 370 an aggression against the people.

Pakistani Kashmiris protested near the Indian embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, today holding a banner which read ‘stop genocide of innocent Indian Kashmiris’

Protesters also gathered in Lahore, Pakistan, holding signs to express their solidarity today

The law dates to 1927, when an order by the administration of the-then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir gave the state’s subjects exclusive hereditary rights. 

Two months after India won independence from British rule in August 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, signed a Treaty of Accession for the state to join the rest of the union, formalized in Article 370 of the Indian constitution.

Further discussions culminated in the 1952 Delhi Agreement, a presidential order that extended Indian citizenship to the residents of the state but left the maharaja’s privileges for residents intact.   

Tensions have also soared along the Line of Control, the volatile, highly militarized frontier that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan this weekend.

Indian firing along the Line of Control on Sunday wounded one woman, Pakistani police said.

Members of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, pictured today, celebrated the government revoking Kashmir’s special status in Prayagraj, India

Supporters of Jammu Kashmir Islamic Political Party held signs and chanted slogans at a demonstration to condemn the recent killings by Indian forces in Islamabad, Pakistan, today

Kashmir’s People Democratic Party Fayaz Ahmed Mir, pictured, shouted slogans against the Indian government’s proposal to revoke Kashmir’s special status in New Delhi today

In Pakistani border villages, residents were moving to safer places or building and strengthening bunkers and shelters protecting them from cross-border fire.

Pakistan and India routinely blame each other for initiating border skirmishes.

Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party won reelection early this year on a platform that included promises to do away with special rights for Kashmiris under India’s constitution.

At the Srinagar airport, hundreds of Indian and foreign visitors, including some Hindu pilgrims, congregated outside the main terminal, seeking seats on departing flights. 

Tourists and pilgrims also took buses out of the region, with authorities busing out hundreds of Indian students from Srinagar colleges.

Rebels in Indian-controlled Kashmir have been fighting Indian control since 1989. 

Most Kashmiris support the rebels’ demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control. 

About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian crackdown.

Source: Read Full Article