India revokes Kashmir’s special status

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The Indian government revoked the special status accorded to Indian-administered Kashmir in its constitution, the most far-reaching political move on the disputed region in nearly 70 years.

A presidential decree issued on August 5 revoked Article 370 of India’s constitution that guaranteed special rights to the Muslim-majority state, including the right to its own constitution and autonomy to make laws on all matters except defence, communications and foreign affairs.

In the lead-up to the move, India sent thousands of additional troops to the disputed region, imposed a crippling curfew, shut down telecommunications and internet, and arrested political leaders.

The move has worsened the already-heightened tensions with neighbouring Pakistan, which said it would downgrade its diplomatic relations with India.

India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full but rule it in part. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two of their three wars over the disputed territory. A rebellion in Indian-administered Kashmir has been ongoing for three decades.

Sunday, September 15

’20 protests a day’ in Kashmir despite lockdown

Kashmir has seen an average of nearly 20 protests a day against Indian rule over the last six weeks despite a security lockdown to quell unrest, a senior government source told AFP news agency.

Altogether there have been 722 protests since August 5, with the main city of Srinagar, Baramulla district in the northwest and Pulwama in the south being the biggest hotspots, the source said. Nearly 200 civilians and 415 security forces have been wounded, according to the source.

So far, more than 4,100 people – including 170 political leaders – have been detained across the valley, with 3,000 released in the past two weeks, the official said.

Saturday, September 14

Pakistan says India fire kills soldier, woman in Kashmir

India and Pakistan have traded fire along their highly militarised frontier in the disputed Kashmir region, Pakistani officials said, leaving a Pakistani soldier and a woman killed. The two nations regularly exchange fire along the so-called Line of Control, which splits Kashmir between them.

Pakistani local administrator Raja Tariq said shelling hit villages in the Nakyal area, killing the woman and wounding six others. Police and local officials said Indian fire in other sectors of Pakistan-administered Kashmir also destroyed a house, partly damaged a school, and hit a shed for cows and goats resulting in the animals’ deaths. Pakistan’s military also said Indian troops opened fire “unprovoked” in the Hajipir sector, killing a soldier.

Friday, September 13

Pakistan PM holds Kashmir solidarity rally

At a rally in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Prime Minister Imran Khan said India’s crackdown in Kashmir cannot continue and it may drive more of the world’s Muslims into “extremism”.

“When atrocities get to their peak, people would prefer that death is better than this insulting life,” Khan said in Muzaffarabad. “I want to tell India that, by detaining thousands of people, you are pushing people into extremism,” he said.

Khan said he would raise the issue at the UN General Assembly and “every international platform”.

Read the full story here.

Gates Foundation criticised over award to India’s Modi

A decision by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to honour Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his campaign to improve sanitation in India has come under fire from activists and members of the civil society, who have urged the philanthropic body to withdraw the award.

The award comes in recognition of the Hindu nationalist leader’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) programme under which millions of toilets have been built. But activists say hygiene and cleanliness cannot compensate for rights abuses against the minorities in Kashmir and other parts of India.

Read the full story here.

End Kashmir blockade: US legislators in letter to Pompeo

In a letter dated September 11 and tagged in a tweet, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal in the House of Representatives and Congressman James P McGovern  have asked US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to press the Indian government to immediately end the communications blackout in Kashmir.

The letter says international media and independent human rights observers must be allowed into Jammu and Kashmir “to investigate reports of abuse”. The legislators also expressed concern over the surge in “attacks against religious minorities throughout India” in the letter.

“Multiple reports indicate that over 3,000 people have been indefinitely detained by Indian authorities without any charges, some as young as 11 years old,” the letter said.

Thursday, September 12

Opinion: India’s actions have made Kashmir separatism mainstream

“On June 11, 2010, I came face to face with the sad and violent reality of my homeland, Kashmir, for the first time in my life. I was leaving my tuition centre in the downtown area of the capital Srinagar when I heard shots. Within minutes, panic took over the street and hundreds of students started running in all directions to find cover.

As I looked for somewhere to hide, I saw the body of a young man lying motionless on the ground. He was covered in blood and his eyes were firmly shut. I knew he was dead.”

Read the full article here.

Thousands arrested in Kashmir crackdown: Official data

Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir have arrested nearly 4,000 people since the scrapping of its special status last month, government data shows, the most clear evidence yet of the scale of one of the disputed region’s biggest crackdowns.

A government report dated September 6 and seen by the Reuters news agency, said more than 3,800 people were arrested, though about 2,600 have since been released.

It was not clear on what basis most of the people were being held, but an Indian official said some were held under the Public Safety Act, a law in Jammu and Kashmir state that allows for detention for up to two years without charge.

Why Saudi, UAE don’t condemn India over Kashmir

Last week, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) travelled to Islamabad in a symbolic show of solidarity with Pakistan after New Delhi stripped the Indian-administered Kashmir of its autonomy.

UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir held meetings with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, powerful military chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi but stayed away from issuing strong words against India.

Read the full story here.

Indian police intercept weapons ‘headed for Kashmir’

Three men suspected of belonging to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Muhammad group have been arrested while transporting weapons and ammunition towards Indian Kashmir, police said. Four AK-56 assault rifles, two AK-47s, 6 magazines and 180 rounds were seized, said police official Shridhar Patil.

“The truck was coming from [Indian state of] Punjab and was on its way to Kashmir. We are investigating where exactly they picked up the ammunition from,” Patil told a news conference.

Pakistan’s president asks India to lift Kashmir curbs

Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi has called on India to immediately lift all restrictions on people in Indian-administered Kashmir. During a speech in parliament, he also condemned continued human rights violations in the disputed region.

Alvi’s speech came a day before Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was scheduled to address a rally in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to express solidarity with the people in the Indian part of Kashmir.

Wednesday, September 11

Opinion: Pakistan is no friend of Kashmir, either

“In a recent opinion piece penned for the New York Times, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan asked the world to wake up to the conflict in Kashmir because if it does not, there is a risk of a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. Like previous Pakistani premiers, he sought to present Pakistan as a champion of the Kashmiri cause.

While the world indeed needs to take action on ongoing crackdown and rights abuses in India, it should not overlook the role Pakistan has played in the Kashmiri tragedy. Over the past decades, it has shown little commitment to Kashmiri self-determination.”

More here.

Pakistan sees risk of ‘accidental war’ over Kashmir

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has warned that the situation in Indian-administered Kashmir risks sparking an “accidental war”, and urged the UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet to visit the troubled region.

“If the situation persists… then anything is possible,” Qureshi said on the sidelines of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, even as he ruled out the possibility of bilateral talks to resolve the tensions.

Pakistan wants a multilateral forum or a third-party mediator to discuss Kashmir, while India insists it is an internal Indian affair.

Suspected rebel behind attack on trader’s family killed

Security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir shot dead Asif Maqbool Bhatt, a suspected member of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba group, accused of attacking the family of a fruit trader, the state police chief Dilbagh Singh told Reuters news agency.

Last week, rebels attacked the home of a fruit trader in Sopore, the region’s main fruit-growing area, for carrying on with his business despite widespread protest boycotts, wounding his son, granddaughter and another family member, Indian authorities said.

Authorities said hundreds of apple trucks have been moving out of Sopore, 45 kilometres from the main city of Srinagar, to deliver their produce to the rest of the country in what they call a “sign of normalcy”.

Tuesday, September 10

Pakistan FM warns of accidental war

Pakistan’s foreign minister has warned that India’s “illegal occupation” of Muslim-majority Kashmir region could drive the two nuclear-armed countries “into an accidental war”, while also accusing New Delhi of turning Kashmir ”into the largest prison on this planet”.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi, speaking to reporters at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, accused India of “acting irresponsibly” and “being belligerent”. 

“If there is a false flag operation, which we fear, and they use it as a pretext and carry out some misadventure against Pakistan, we will respond and we will respond with force,” he said. 

Kashmiris allege abuse by India army

Residents in a dozen villages have accused Indian soldiers of multiple human rights abuses – including beatings and electric shocks, forcing them to eat dirt or drink filthy water, poisoning their food supplies and threatening to take away and marry their female relatives.

An Indian army spokesman in the main city Srinagar, dismissed the accounts as “completely baseless”.

Read more here.

‘Less heated’ tension between India, Pakistan

US President Donald Trump said the tension between India and Pakistan was “less heated” now compared to two weeks ago. He reiterated his offer to help if the two countries approached him.

“India and Pakistan are having a conflict over Kashmir as you know. I think [it] is a little bit less heated right now than [what] was two weeks ago,” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday.

“I get along with both countries very well. I am willing to help them if they want. They know that the [offer] is out there,” he said.

During a meeting with the visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan in July, Trump had offered mediation on the Kashmir issue. But India has refused mediation by a third party.

Monday, September 9

UN rights chief ‘deeply concerned’ over India actions in Kashmir

The United Nations human rights chief on Monday voiced alarm over the situation in Kashmir, pointing among other things to “restrictions on internet communications and peaceful assembly, and the detention of local political leaders and activists”.

“I am deeply concerned about the impact of recent actions by the government of India on the human rights of Kashmiris,” Michelle Bachelet said in her opening statement to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHCR) in Geneva.

Bachelet said she had urged both the countries to ensure that rights in the region were respected and protected. But she said she had “appealed particularly to India to ease the current lockdowns or curfews, to ensure people’s access to basic services, and that all due process rights are respected for those who have been detained”.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan welcomed Bachelet’s comments in a series of tweets on Monday, and called on the UNHCR to form an independent commission to investigate human rights atrocities in Indian-administered Kashmir. 

Pakistan arrests protesters after pro-independence Kashmir rally

Police have arrested at least 22 people at a pro-independence protest in Pakistan-administered Kashmir after clashes broke out between authorities and demonstrators, according to police and activists.

The clashes took place on Saturday near the village of Tatrinote, about 80km south of the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Muzaffarabad, and close to the Line of Control that divides Indian and Pakistan-administered portions of the disputed territory.

Read more here.

Sunday, September 8

India tightens lockdown over Muharram processions

Indian authorities have tightened the month-long security lockdown in the main city of Srinagar after breaking up the Muharram processions by mostly Shia Muslims who defied a ban.

Police drove around the city from early Sunday, asking the residents “not to venture out of their homes”. The AFP news agency reported at least two processions with eight to 10 mourners, who were detained and taken away by police, who were also seen hitting the mourners with bamboo sticks.

Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar which started on September 1 this year, marks the anniversary of the death of a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. Most such processions have been banned in Indian-administered Kashmir since an armed rebellion against New Delhi’s rule began in 1989.

Saturday, September 7

India: Lifting of Kashmir curbs ‘depends on Pakistan’

The lifting of communications restrictions in Indian-administered Kashmir depends on Pakistan stopping deploying “terrorists” and fomenting unrest there, India’s national security adviser (NSA) has said.

NSA Ajit Doval said that “100 percent” of landlines are now working but that a further easing depends on Pakistan, which he said has sent 230 armed fighters into the region.

“Lifting the [restrictions on] communications depends on how Pakistan behaves,” Doval told reporters. “We are determined to protect the lives of Kashmiris from Pakistani terrorists even if we have to impose restrictions.”

India president’s request to use Pakistani airspace denied

Pakistan says it has refused a request by India’s President Ram Nath Kovind to fly through its airspace due to New Delhi’s recent “behaviour”.

“The Indian president had sought permission to use Pakistan’s airspace to travel to Iceland but we decided not to permit him,” Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a statement, without giving further details. There was no immediate comment by India.

Read more here.

Friday, September 6

Landline phones back, but calls ‘don’t go through’

The administration in Indian-administered Kashmir said landline telephone service has been restored. But people lined up at offices or homes that have landline telephones to try to contact family and friends after the long wait, but many were unable to get through after repeated attempts.

“Our landlines have been restored but we are still unable to talk to people. It is frustrating. I have been trying to call people since morning, but I am not getting through,” said Syed Musahid in Srinagar.

Many Kashmiris living outside the region also said they were having trouble getting in touch with their families in Kashmir. “I kept trying a hundred times to reach my family in Kashmir, and only then did my call go through,” said Bint-e-Ali, a Kashmiri in the Indian city of Bengaluru.

Chaos and crisis in Kashmir hospitals

For the past two weeks, Mohamad Shafi has been at the bedside of his 13-year-old son Rafi, who has been admitted to the nephrology ward of a state-run hospital in Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar.

Shafi is tired and has hardly had much sleep, but the 54-year-old is prepared to stay at the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences hospital for as long as it takes.

Read the full story here.

India throttling Kashmir media, report says

India’s government is muzzling Kashmir’s media as part of the lockdown it imposed on the disputed region a month ago, according to a new report by the Network of Women in Media, India and the Free Speech Collective.

The study said reporters were being subjected to surveillance, informal investigations and harassment for publishing reports considered adverse to the government or security forces.

Titled “News Behind The Barbed Wire”, its findings reveal “a grim and despairing picture of the media in Kashmir, fighting for survival against the most incredible of odds”.

Pakistan army accuses India of ‘state terrorism’

Pakistan’s army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa has accused India of being responsible for “state terrorism” in Indian-administered Kashmir.

He said the Pakistani military is ready for “every sacrifice” and “will never abandon” the people of Kashmir in their struggle for self-determination in line with UN resolutions.

Bajwa spoke as Pakistan marked the 54th anniversary of the start of the second of the two wars it has fought with India over Kashmir.

Thursday, September 5

Anger, defiance mark a month of Kashmir siege

Haleema had to begin her journey at dawn, travelling through deserted roads from her home in southern Kashmir’s Shopian district to wait at a park outside the central jail in Srinagar, the main city in the Muslim-majority region.

Two hours past noon, Haleema was still waiting and uncertain if she would be allowed to meet her husband, Bashir Ahmad. “He was picked 20 days ago,” she said, “like they pick everyone else.”

Read the full story here.

Kashmiri teen dies of pellet, tear gas shell wounds

When the body of 16-year-old Asrar Khan reached his home in Indian-administered Kashmir at about 2:30am on Wednesday (2100 GMT on Tuesday), wails of his grieving parents shattered the tense silence of the night.

Khan, a student of Class 11, was injured in the head by a tear gas shell and pellets on August 6 outside his home in the main city of Srinagar’s Ellahi Bagh area, according to his family and medical records.

Read the full story here.

Amnesty launches campaign to end Kashmir blackout

The draconian communications blackout in Kashmir is an outrageous protracted assault on the civil liberties of the people of Kashmir, Amnesty International India said, as it launched a global campaign today in a bid to highlight the human cost of the lockdown.

“The blackout has now been a month old and cannot be prolonged any further by the Indian Government as it has grossly impacted the daily lives of Kashmiri people, their emotional and mental wellbeing, medical care, as well as their access to basic necessities and emergency services. It is tearing families apart,” said Aakar Patel, head of Amnesty International India.

Wednesday, September 4

Victims of torture, arbitrary arrests recount ordeal

In a village in southern Kashmir, a 22-year-old man said he was picked up in a midnight raid and tortured for more than an hour along with a dozen other Kashmiris.

“I was beaten with sticks, rifle butts and they kept asking me why I went for a protest march. I kept telling them that I didn’t, but they didn’t stop. After I fainted, they used electric shocks to revive me,” he told Al Jazeera, on condition of anonymity.

Read the full story here.

Saudi, UAE diplomats in Pakistan to discuss Kashmir

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have sent their top diplomats to Pakistan to help Islamabad defuse tensions with India over the disputed Kashmir region. Gulf Arab countries have kept mostly silent on the issue, underpinned by more than $100bn in annual trade with India that makes it one of the Arabian Peninsula’s most prized economic partners.

In a rare move, a single aircraft carried the two Arab diplomats – Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir and UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan – to Islamabad in what Pakistani authorities said was a symbolic show of unity. The two diplomats held talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

India names leaders of Pakistan-based groups ‘terrorists’

India has officially declared Masood Azhar, chief of Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM) and Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) as “terrorists” under the amended Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Act.

Azhar’s name has already been placed by the United Nations on a sanctions blacklist after his group claimed responsibility for a February suicide attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 40 Indian soldiers and brought India and Pakistan close to war. The UN in May imposed a travel ban and freeze on Azhar’s assets as well as an arms embargo.

Saeed, an anti-India scholar, runs a charity in Pakistan known as Jamaat-ud-Dawa. The charity is widely believed to serve as a front for LeT, the group blamed for attacks in Mumbai in 2008 that killed 166 people.

India sowing seeds of war: Pakistan army

The Pakistani army has warned that India is sowing the seeds of war with its action in the Kashmir region.

“The situation in Kashmir has become a big danger in the region … The Indian action in Kashmir is sowing seeds of war,” Pakistani military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor told a news conference in Islamabad.

Tuesday, September 3

PM Khan: Will not initiate military conflict with India

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has asserted that his country would not initiate a military conflict with India, warning of the risk to the world of nuclear war breaking out between the South Asian neighbours, as tensions over the disputed region of Kashmir remain high.

“We are two nuclear-armed countries, if tensions rise then there is a danger to the world from this,” Khan said at the International Sikh Convention in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore on Monday.

Read the full story here.

Sunday, September 1

Thousands take part in anti-India rally in Karachi

Thousands of Pakistani protesters took part in an anti-India rally for a fourth consecutive week following India’s move in downgrading Muslim-majority Kashmir’s autonomy. Protesters held signs, chanted slogans and displayed a large Kashmiri flag during the rally in Karachi, organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami party.

“We demand that the peace mission of the United Nations should visit Srinagar, like how they go to Uganda, East Timor, Djibouti and other countries of Africa,” said Siraj ul Haq, Jamaat-e-Islami party chief, calling on other nations to “take active measures to give Kashmiris the right to freedom”.

Reporting Kashmir amid lockdown, harassment

As the crippling lockdown in Indian-administered Kashmir nears a month, journalists in the region complain of harassment by authorities, with many accusing security forces of deleting their camera footage and a pressure to report “normalcy”.

“This is a unique situation. None of us had seen anything like this in the past. Even in the worst of times in Kashmir, we were able to file our stories,” said Muzaffar Raina as he waited to access his email at a media centre in the main city of Srinagar.

Read the full story here.

Saturday, August 31

Friday, August 30

Khan: ‘World can’t ignore Kashmir, we’re all in danger’

Prime Minister Imran Khan, in an opinion piece for The New York Times, said talks between India and Pakistan could only begin if New Delhi reversed its “illegal annexation of Kashmir, ends the curfew and lockdown, and withdraws its troops to the barracks”.

Khan’s piece was published as Pakistan came to a standstill on Friday as tens of thousands poured onto streets in a government-led demonstration of solidarity with the disputed region of Kashmir, after India revoked its autonomy this month.

“I wanted to normalise relations with India through trade and by settling the Kashmir dispute, the foremost impediment to the normalisation of relations between us,” Khan said.

Imran Khan leads Kashmir solidarity rallies in Pakistan

Pakistan’s prime minister promised to raise the issue of rights violations allegedly perpetrated by India in the disputed region of Kashmir at the United Nations next month, as tens of thousands held protests across the country expressing solidarity with the Kashmiris.

“The whole world should have stood with Kashmir,” Imran Khan told a rally of thousands outside his office in the capital Islamabad on Friday.

Read the full story here.

Thursday, August 29

‘Pakistan-trained commandos’ trigger alert at India ports

India’s two main ports said they had been warned by the coastguard and intelligence officials that Pakistan-trained commandos had entered Indian waters to carry out underwater attacks on port facilities.

The Mundra Port, run by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, and the state-owned Kandla Port asked their employees and ship operators to be vigilant, port officials and the ports said, in advisories seen by Reuters news agency.

Intelligence shared by government officials suggested that “Pakistan-trained commandos” had entered the Gulf of Kutch on the west coast to foment violence, the Kandla Port said in an advisory.

Will India’s crackdown fuel further violence?

As India extends its military lockdown in Kashmir, there are fears that the resistance movement may adopt a strategy of violence to fight against the punishing measures – which include mass arrests, a communications shutdown and alleged police brutality and harassment.

Chants of “one solution, gun solution” have recently resounded at protests in the Muslim-majority Indian-administered region, which on August 5 was subjected to a complete military crackdown after the Hindu-nationalist ruling party revoked Article 370, which had granted Kashmir a degree of autonomy.

Read the full story here.

Pakistan carries out training launch of ballistic missile

Pakistan’s military has successfully carried out a training launch of a surface-to-surface ballistic missile, at a time of heightened tension with neighbouring India over the disputed region of Kashmir, a spokesman said.

“Pakistan successfully carried out night training launch of … missile Ghaznavi capable of delivering multiple types of warheads,” the spokesman for the armed forces, Major General Asif Ghafoor, said on Twitter.

The missile can deliver a warhead to a distance of up to 290km.

Enormous hiring drive planned in Kashmir: Governor

Satya Pal Malik, the New Delhi-appointed governor of Jammu and Kashmir, said the central government planned to hire tens of thousands of workers. Malik called it the largest recruitment drive in the region, with officials planning to fill “50,000 vacancies in various government departments in the next few months”.

At a news conference in the main city of Srinagar, Malik also announced that the government was willing to commit $700m to help apple farmers. Indian authorities believe the move will expand the region’s economy, to which horticulture, particularly apple orchards, is critical.

Wednesday, August 28

Pakistan briefs France, Jordan on ‘deteriorating situation’

India’s unilateral actions in Kashmir pose “grave” risks to regional peace and are aimed at altering the demography of the Muslim-majority region, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan said in phone calls with the leaders of Jordan and France. 

French President Emmanuel Macron underlined the importance of “resolving all outstanding issues through peaceful means”, according to a statement from Khan’s office. 

Jordan‘s King Abdullah called for de-escalation and peaceful resolution of the dispute, Khan’s office said. He also pledged to consult other countries over the situation. 

500 protests, hundreds injured in three weeks: Report

At least 500 incidents of protest have broken out in Indian-administered Kashmir since New Dehli stripped the region of its autonomy and imposed a military clampdown more than three weeks ago, a senior government official has told the AFP news agency.

The official said at least 500 protests and incidents of stone-throwing have occurred since August 5, with more than half taking place in the main city of Srinagar.

Read the full story here.

India’s top court to examine change in Kashmir status

India’s top court is taking up legal challenges to the government’s decision to revoke Indian-administered Kashmir’s special status and has asked the government to explain its stance to the court.

The Supreme Court held a preliminary hearing on the petitions and said five judges will start a regular hearing in October.

It ordered the federal government to file its replies to 14 petitions and inform the court about the media restrictions imposed in Kashmir.

‘Kashmir India’s internal issue, Pakistan backs violence’

Rahul Gandhi, leader of India’s main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, has said Kashmir is India’s internal issue and Pakistan “instigates and supports” violence in the region.

“I disagree with this Govt. on many issues. But, let me make this absolutely clear: Kashmir is India’s internal issue & there is no room for Pakistan or any other foreign country to interfere in it,” Gandhi tweeted.

Tuesday, August 27

Pakistan army: Two killed from India fire along LoC

Pakistan’s military has accused Indian troops of firing across the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region, killing two civilians and wounding three others.

It said in a statement that the dead included a 45-year-old man and a three-year-old girl, while the wounded were taken to hospital.

The Indian fire also burned three homes in the village of Nekrun near the heavily militarised LoC, it added.

The army did not say whether it returned fire and there was no immediate comment from India.

Pakistan considering closing airspace to India: Minister

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan is considering a complete closure of airspace to India and blocking Indian land trade to Afghanistan via Pakistan, according to the Pakistani minister for science and technology.

“PM is considering a complete closure of Air Space to India, a complete ban on use of Pakistan Land routes for Indian trade to Afghanistan was also suggested in cabinet meeting, legal formalities for these decisions are under consideration … #Modi has started we’ll finish!,” Fawad Chaudhry wrote on Twitter.

The tweet gave no more details on why Pakistan would be considering the moves against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government now.

Pakistan had reopened its airspace in mid-July after almost five months after closing it in the wake of a military standoff with India.

The months of restrictions forced long detours that cost airlines millions of dollars.

Students rally in Pakistan-administered Kashmir

More than a thousand students rallied in the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir to denounce India’s downgrading of the special status of the portion of the disputed region it controls.

The demonstrators chanted “We want freedom” and denounced human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Tuesday’s rally in Muzaffarabad came a day after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan vowed to globally highlight the issue of Kashmir. He will address the UN General Assembly on September 27.

Workers told to leave amid demography fears

Deepak Lal came to Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar in May hoping to find work as a painter. The 23-year-old travelled several hundred miles from his home state of West Bengal in eastern India to the disputed Himalayan region expecting to work during the summer and autumn months.

His plan was foiled when India’s Hindu nationalist government imposed an unprecedented security lockdown in the territory earlier this month, followed by a contentious move to strip the region of its limited autonomy.

Read the full story here.

Monday, August 26

Pakistan FM to have meeting with UAE after Modi’s award

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Sunday brushed away criticism of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after the gulf nation gave Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi its highest civilian honour amid the lockdown in Kashmir.

He said India and the UAE have a “history of relations in connection with investment”. Qureshi added that he will soon have a “meeting with the UAE foreign minister to inform him about the prevailing situation in India-held Kashmir”.

Sunday, August 25

Truck driver killed in clashes 

A Kashmiri truck driver in Indian-administered Kashmir was killed as fresh clashes between the security forces and residents broke out, police said, amid a security and communications blackout that is now in its fourth week. 

Noor Mohammed Dar, 42, was struck on the head as protesters hurled stones at security forces during a confrontation in the city of Srinagar.

No shortage of medicines, essential items: Governor

The governor of Jammu and Kashmir state, Satya Pal Malik, has said there is no shortage of medicines or other essential commodities in the disputed region which has been under lockdown for more than three weeks.

“In fact, we delivered meat, vegetables and eggs to people’s houses on Eid. Your opinion will change in 10-15 days,” he told reporters in New Delhi as he defended the curfew.

Top bureaucrat ‘resigns over Kashmir restrictions’

Kannan Gopinathan, a 33-year-old Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer hailing from the southern state of Kerala, quit his government job, saying he has his “own conscience to answer to” over the crippling lockdown and denial of fundamental rights in Indian-administered Kashmir, Indian media reported.

“If you ask me what you were doing, when one of the world’s largest democracies announced a ban on the entire state, and even violated the fundamental rights of the people, I should at least be able to reply that I quit my job,” he told an Indian news portal.

Saturday, August 24

Separatist leader urges resistance to India’s Kashmir move 

Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a prominent separatist leader in Indian-administered Kashmir, has called on residents of the region to peacefully resist Indian rule in the disputed territory.

“It is our heartfelt appeal to the people of Jammu and Kashmir that we must continue to resist at this critical juncture … We all can, and must, act according to our abilities; through action or word. People should organise peaceful protests and demonstrations in their areas of residence,” the 89-year-old leader said in a statement.

Geelani, who has been held at his home since India’s decision to revoke Kashmir’s special status, also urged Pakistan to act decisively.

The statement was his first since India’s move.

Modi gets top UAE honour amid Kashmir lockdown

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has received the United Arab Emirate’s (UAE) highest civilian honour.

Modi was awarded the Order of Zayed medal by the UAE’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (known by his initials MBZ), during a visit to the capital Abu Dhabi.

But the award has sparked outrage among rights activists over the Modi government’s clampdown in the Muslim-majority Kashmir region administered by New Delhi.

Read more here. 

Indian opposition leaders ‘sent back’ from Srinagar

A delegation of India’s main opposition politicians, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, has been sent back to the capital, New Delhi, after it reached Srinagar, news agency ANI reported. 

Gandhi and others had flown in to the disputed region to observe the situation on the ground.

Opposition leaders to visit Srinagar amid lockdown

India’s main opposition politicians, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, are expected to arrive in Srinagar, despite appeals by the government not to visit the tense region.

The political parties forming the opposition’s delegation are the Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party, Trinamool Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Indian media reports said.

Pakistan repeats demand for UN intervention in Kashmir

Pakistan has sent another letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), demanding intervention to end the “humanitarian crises” in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mehmood Qureshi has underscored the importance for the world community, including the UN, to call upon India to rescind its unilateral actions, lift the curfew and other draconian measures and restore fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people, the statement said.

Friday, August 23

India increases restrictions ahead of protest call

Authorities in Srinagar have tightened security ahead of Friday prayers after there were calls for a protest march to a UN office.

Posters appeared overnight this week in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir, calling for a march to the office of the UN Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan to protest against India’s revocation of Jammu and Kashmir state’s special autonomy.

Read the full story here

Hospital data shows use of tear gas, pellet guns

More than 150 people have suffered injuries from tear gas and pellets in disputed Kashmir since Indian security forces launched a major crackdown this month, data from the region’s two main hospitals shows.

At least 152 people reported to Srinagar’s Shere Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) and Shri Maharaj Hari Singh hospital with injuries from pellet shots and tear gas fire between August 5 and August 21, according to data acquired by Reuters news agency.

Read more here. 

Thursday, August 22

Indian opposition parties protest against Kashmir detentions

Major opposition parties in India have joined forces to protest against the government’s clampdown in Indian-administered Kashmir , demanding the immediate release of political leaders and the restoration of communication services in the Himalayan region

Opposition figures addressed the New Delhi protest, which was organised by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, a regional party from the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

“The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideological wing, RSS, are celebrating the abrogation of Article 370, while the majority of people don’t even know what the Article is,” Ghulam Nabi Azad, of the Indian National Congress, told the hundreds of people in the crowd.

Read the full story here

‘Patriotism pop’ urges Hindus to claim Kashmir

The music videos began appearing on social media within hours of the announcement by India’s Hindu-led nationalist government that it was stripping statehood from the disputed region of Kashmir that had been in place for decades.

The songs delivered a message to India’s 250 million YouTube users about moving to the Muslim-majority region, buying land there and marrying Kashmiri women.

Read more here.

‘India talked of peace and calm, I saw the opposite’

“I arrived in Srinagar with my sister on August 1. Having grown up in Kashmir, I didn’t think too much when I saw the shuttered tourist information desk at the airport and the military presence.

Driving home, I noticed that the military presence was larger than normal in what is already one of the most militarised zones in the world. It was the peak of the tourist season, thousands of Amarnath Yatra pilgrims were visiting, and with Eid and the wedding season around the corner, the streets were busy.

The following morning, I woke up early. My phone was buzzing with messages from friends and family asking if we were OK.”

Read the full account here.

Imran Khan rules out dialogue with India

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has ruled out seeking dialogue with India over the Kashmir issue, saying “there is nothing more we can do”.

“There is no point in talking to them,” Khan said in an interview with The New York Times. “I have done all the talking. Unfortunately, now when I look back, all the overtures that I was making for peace and dialogue, I think they took it for appeasement.”

Read the full story here.

Wednesday, August 21

Pakistan lodges UN complaint against Indian actress

Pakistan has demanded the United Nations remove Indian actress Priyanka Chopra as a UN goodwill ambassador over her “support for war” amid heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.

In a letter to the UNICEF chief Henrietta Fore, Pakistan’s Minister of Human Rights Shireen Mazari accused the 37-year-old actress and former Miss World of publicly endorsing the position of Prime Minister Narendra Modi‘s Hindu nationalist government in Indian-administered Kashmir.

“Her jingoism and support for violations by the Modi government of international conventions and UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir, as well as support for war, including a nuclear war, undermines the credibility of the UN position to which she been elevated,” Mazari said in the letter.

Read more here.

Jailed Kashmir separatists call for rally

Separatist leaders in Indian-administered Kashmir have urged people to defy a ban and join a mass march after Friday prayers this week.

Hundreds of political leaders and activists, many of them separatists seeking Kashmir’s secession from India, have been arrested and the appeal to the public came through posters that appeared overnight in the region’s main city of Srinagar.

“Every person, young and old, men and women, should march after Friday prayers,” the Joint Resistance Leadership, which represents all major separatist groups, said on one poster.

Modi raises Kashmir protests with UK’s Johnson

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, about violent demonstrations over Kashmir outside the Indian embassy in London, the foreign ministry said.

Thousands of people, many waving Pakistani and Kashmiri flags, protested outside the embassy last week, on India’s independence day, against Modi’s withdrawal of Kashmir’s special status.

In a telephone call with Johnson, Modi “referred to the violence and vandalism perpetrated by a large mob against the High Commission of India in London”, India’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

“Prime Minister Johnson regretted the incident and assured that all necessary steps would be taken to ensure safety and security of the High Commission, its personnel and visitors,” the ministry said.

Trump: I will do best to mediate Kashmir standoff

US President Donald Trump has reasserted his offer to mediate what he called an “explosive” situation in Kashmir.

Trump said he would raise the matter over the weekend with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G7 summit in France. 

“Kashmir is a very complicated place. You have Hindus and you have the Muslims and I wouldn’t say they get along so great,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“I will do the best I can to mediate,” he added.

Police say 2 killed in gun battle in Baramulla

Two people, including a police officer, were killed in a gun battle between armed rebels and security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said on Wednesday.

Read more here. 

‘Women biggest victims of this inhumane siege’

After August 5, when India revoked Kashmir’s special status and followed the move with a military lockdown, Uzma Javed did not leave her house for days. Every few hours, she looked out of the window from her family’s two-storey house in Srinagar, the largest city in Indian-administered Kashmir.

A 20-year-old student who usually lives in Kerala, Javed had returned home to spend Eid with her relatives. But instead of celebrating, she found herself caged in while outside, armed Indian paramilitary forces manned largely empty streets.

Read the full story here.

Tuesday, August 20

Macron to discuss Kashmir with Modi

French President Emmanuel Macron will discuss tensions in the divided region of Kashmir with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the two meet in Paris this week, a French official said.

Pakistan to take Kashmir dispute with India to world court

Pakistan said it would take the Kashmir dispute with India to the International Court of Justice after New Delhi revoked special status for its portion of the region earlier this month.

“We have decided to take Kashmir case to the International Court of Justice,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told ARY News TV.

“The decision was taken after considering all legal aspects.”

Kashmir tensions: ‘War is not a solution’

As the tough political talk on Kashmir has a direct effect on the lives of millions of people on both sides of the Line of Control, Al Jazeera talks to three key figures on the Pakistani side and asks: Will Pakistan be able to neutralise the Indian move; can diplomacy defuse tensions; and will other powers like China get involved, and if so, what could this mean for Kashmiris?

Watch the full episode here.

Authorities make more arrests to deter protests

Security forces have detained 30 people overnight in Srinagar, local officials said, amid frequent demonstrations in the city despite a clampdown on phone and internet services, a ban on public gatherings and the detention of hundreds of political leaders and separatists.

“These arrests have been made in the areas where there has been intensifying stone pelting in the last few days,” a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A local government official confirmed the latest detentions, Reuters news agency reported.

Government sources have told AFP news agency at least 4,000 people have been arrested in Indian-administered Kashmir since August 5, with some of them moved out of the disputed region as jails have run out of capacity.

Besieged Srinagar neighbourhood in test of wills with forces

For more than a week, the young men of Soura, a densely populated enclave in Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar, have been taking turns to maintain an around-the-clock vigil at the entry points to their neighbourhood.

Soura, home to about 15,000 people, is becoming the epicentre of resistance to India’s plans to remove the partial autonomy that was enjoyed by the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir state.

The enclave has effectively become a no-go zone for the Indian security forces.

Read the full story here.

Monday, August 19

Trump talks Kashmir with India, Pakistan PMs

US President Donald Trump spoke with the prime ministers of India and Pakistan, urging them to reduce tensions over the disputed region of Kashmir.

“Spoke to my two good friends, Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi of India, and Prime Minister [Imran] Khan of Pakistan, regarding Trade, Strategic Partnerships and, most importantly, for India and Pakistan to work towards reducing tensions in Kashmir,” Trump tweeted.

“A tough situation, but good conversations!” the president wrote.

As schools reopen in Kashmir, students mostly stay home

Main government offices and a few schools in Indian-administered Kashmir have reopened after two weeks of a clampdown in the disputed region.

Nearly 200 primary schools were ordered by the authorities to reopen in certain areas. However, attendance in schools remained scant, as many parents decided against sending their children amid heightened tensions in the state. 

Read the full story here.

Pakistan army chief’s tenure to be extended by three years

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan extended his military chief’s term by another three years, an official statement released by his office said. The decision comes amid the ongoing crisis in Kashmir, which has seen tensions escalate between India and Pakistan.

“General Qamar Javed Bajwa is appointed as Chief of Army staff for another term of three years from date of completion of current tenure,” read the statement.

“The decision has been taken in view of the regional security environment.”

He was first appointed as army chief in November 2016 by the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for a three-year term.

Schools deserted as parents fear more unrest

Some 190 primary schools reopened in Indian-administered Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar, but most classrooms were empty as parents kept their children home.

Parents said their children would stay home until cellular phone networks were restored and they could be in contact with them.

Pakistan says Indian fire kills 2 civilians in Kashmir

Pakistan said Indian troops have fired across the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region, killing two civilians and wounding another.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that civilian casualties occurred on Sunday because of “unprovoked ceasefire violations” by India in the border villages of Hot Spring and Chirikot.

The ministry said Pakistan summoned an Indian diplomat and lodged a protest over continued ceasefire violations, which “are a threat to regional peace”.

Sunday, August 18

India reimposes some curbs on movement, phones

Indian authorities have reimposed restrictions on movement in major parts of Srinagar after violent overnight clashes between residents and police in which dozens were injured, officials and witnesses said.

Two senior government officials told Reuters news agency that at least two dozen people were admitted to hospitals with pellet injuries.

They also reversed a decision to allow internet and mobile phone use in parts of the Jammu region, according to one official, amid concerns about the spread of rumours online.

4,000 arrested since autonomy stripped: Gov’t sources

A magistrate speaking to AFP news agency on condition of anonymity said at least 4,000 people were arrested in Indian-administered Kashmir and held under the Public Safety Act (PSA), a controversial law that allows authorities to imprison someone for up to two years without charge or trial.

“Most of them were flown out of Kashmir because prisons here have run out of capacity,” the magistrate said, adding that he had used a satellite phone allocated to him to collate the figures from colleagues across the Himalayan territory amid a communications blackout imposed by authorities.

Fascists control India’s nuclear arsenal: Pakistan

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged the international community to take steps to secure India’s nuclear arsenal after New Delhi hinted a shift in its “no first use” policy.

“The World must also seriously consider the safety & security of India’s nuclear arsenal in the control of the fascist, racist Hindu Supremacist Modi Govt. This is an issue that impacts not just the region but the world,” he said in a tweet.

India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said while India had strictly adhered to the nuclear weapons doctrine of “no first use” policy, what would happen in the future will depend on circumstances.

Saturday, August 17

Kashmir’s key political leaders arrested since August 5

Indian authorities have carried out a major crackdown against political leaders in Indian-administered Kashmir and arrested high-profile figures that include three former chief ministers of the Muslim-majority state.

The arrests coincided with the abrogation of the decades-old Article 370 of the Indian constitution that protected the demography of Jammu and Kashmir state and provided it with limited autonomy.

Read the full story here.

Heavy fire reported near LoC between India and Pakistan

Gunfire has been exchanged across the heavily-militarised Line of Control (LoC) between Indian-administered and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

The incident took place in Nowshera town of the Rajouri district in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Indian defence spokesman Colonel Aman Anand said that one soldier was killed allegedly by Pakistan forces. Pakistan has yet to comment on this latest development.

Pakistan announces Kashmir desk at foreign ministry, embassies

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said the country was establishing a Kashmir desk at the ministry and at its embassies in foreign capitals. 

He said this was decided to “lobby for Kashmiris and their right to self-determination” and “in order to carry out effective communication on the matter”.

Khan welcomes first UN session on Kashmir in decades

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan welcomed the UN Security Council meeting that was held in New York on Friday.

He hailed the session as a “reaffirmation” of 11 previous UNSC resolutions on Kashmir, that gaurantees Kashmiris the right to self-determination.

India to ease restrictions in parts of Kashmir

Local police in the Jammu and Kashmir state said on Saturday that 17 out of 100 telephone exchanges were restored in the Kashmir Valley. 

According to Al Jazeera correspondent Anchal Vohra, most of the landline telephone services in Jammu had been restored. Restrictions were tougher in Kashmir, where India’s clampdown continues to be far more constraining.

Read full story here.

Friday, August 16

How a red dot symbolised Kashmir resistance

The famous red dot that marks the story of Indian-administered Kashmir on social media came much before India scrapped the Muslim-majority region of its special status.

The decision to revoke Article 370 of India’s constitution on August 5 was preceded by a heavy military build-up in the Himalayan valley, followed by a crippling lockdown now in its 12th day, and arrests of hundreds of political leaders and activists.

Read the full story here.

Kashmir on lockdown, but Modi touts its investment potential

A few days after Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was eradicated, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that the now-abolished Article 370 of India’s constitution – the provision that had guaranteed special rights to the Muslim-majority region – had also hampered its economic development.

“There must be investment and job opportunities in Jammu and Kashmir,” Modi told CNN-News 18. “No one goes there to invest.”

Read the full story here.

Trump urges India, Pakistan to reduce tensions

US President Donald Trump told Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan that it was important India and Pakistan reduce tensions in Jammu and Kashmir through “bilateral dialogue,” the White House said in a statement.

White House spokesperson Hogan Gidley said the two leaders in a telephone call also discussed building the growing relationship between the United States and Pakistan, citing momentum created during their recent meeting at the White House.

India UN envoy: Kashmir decision internal matter

India’s ambassador to the United Nations criticised international interference over Kashmir, after the Security Council held its first formal meeting on the disputed region in decades.

“We don’t need international busybodies to try to tell us how to run our lives,” Syed Akbaruddin told reporters in New York, adding that India’s decision was an internal matter. 

“If there are issues, they will be discussed, they will be addressed by our courts,” he said.

Read the full story here.

Pakistan UN envoy: Voice of Kashmiri people has been heard

Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN said people in Indian-administered Kashmir “are not alone”, adding that they ”may be locked up … but their voices were heard today”.

Maleeha Lodhi was speaking to reporters after the Security Council met behind closed doors to discuss the situation in Kashmir for the first time in decades. She said that the meeting was called 72 hours after Pakistan’s Foreign Minister wrote a letter requesting it in the wake of India’s move.

“We are grateful to China in also joining us and calling this meeting,” she said.

“The voice of the Kashmiri people, the voice of the people of occupied Kashmir has been heard today in the highest diplomatic forum of the world.

“They are not alone … their plight, their hardship, their pain, their suffering, their occupation and the consequences of that occupation has been heard in the UNSC.” 

Lodhi said that the very fact this meeting had taken place is “testimony to the fact that this is an internationally recognised dispute”.

Chinese UN envoy: Kashmir situation ‘very tense, very dangerous’

The Chinese ambassador to the UN said

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