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INDIA-KASHMIR-PAKISTAN-UNREST
Kashmir shuts down ahead of Supreme Court hearing
SRINAGAR, India, Aug 30, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – A general strike and curfew
brought Indian-administered Kashmir to a standstill Thursday ahead of a
landmark Supreme Court hearing centred on the region’s autonomy.
Separatist leaders have threatened major protests if the Supreme Court
annuls a constitutional provision that bars Indians from outside Kashmir from
buying land or seeking government jobs in the territory.
Businesses, schools and public transport across Kashmir followed separatist
demands to stay closed while government forces rolled out razor wire and
spiked steel barriers across deserted roads in the main city Srinagar to
block demonstrations.
Srinagar residents said they were prevented from going out on the streets
by major deployments of police and paramilitary troops.
“It is a curfew. No-one can go out,” one school teacher in the city told
AFP.
Friday’s hearing in New Delhi has caused a major spike in tensions, adding
to the near daily deaths in battles between government troops and rebels.
Government forces killed two suspected rebels in a gun battle in the
northern district of Hajin during search operations Thursday. On Wednesday,
rebels killed four police officers while Indian troops killed two militants.
Separatist groups say the legal challenge against the special privileges,
which date back to 1954, is a bid by India’s Hindu nationalist government to
alter Kashmir’s religious make-up.
“I caution the freedom loving people of the state to remain vigilant
against these ploys to change the Muslim-majority character of the state,”
top separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani said in a statement released late
Wednesday calling for the strike.
Kashmir has been divided between Indian and Pakistani sectors since their
independence and split in 1947. Both claim the former Himalayan kingdom in
full. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to
end Jammu and Kashmir state’s special status in Indian law, saying it is an
obstacle to outside investment.
Rebel groups have been fighting Indian government forces in Kashmir for
decades, demanding an independent state or merger with Pakistan.
Tens of thousands of people, mostly civilians, have died in the fighting.
BSS/AFP/RY/1458 hrs