Lockdown lifted in key city during Islamic festival
NEW DELHI — Authorities in Indianadministered Kashmir said they eased restrictions in the region’s main city for a third straight day on Sunday for a major Islamic festival, after India’s move to strip the region of its constitutional autonomy and impose an indefinite curfew.
More than 250 ATMs were made functional in Srinagar and bank branches opened for people to withdraw money ahead of the Eid alAdha festival, which will be celebrated Monday, city administrator Shahid Choudhary said.
All communications and the internet remained cut off Sunday for a seventh day.
The New Delhi Television News channel showed video of jeeps fitted with loudspeakers moving in the region after lunchtime, telling people to return to their homes and shopkeepers to shut markets. NDTV said the move may have been prompted by sporadic clashes that took place in Srinagar after the restrictions were relaxed on Saturday.
Authorities appear to be acting with utmost caution because of a fear of a backlash from residents who have been forced to stay indoors since last Monday. The restrictions were briefly eased for the first time on Friday, when residents were allowed to attend mosque prayers.
The predominantly Muslim area has been under the lockdown and neartotal communications blackout to prevent unrest and protests after India’s Hindu nationalistled government said last Monday that it was revoking Kashmir’s special constitutional status and downgrading its statehood. Thousands of Indian troops have been deployed to the area.
On Saturday, Rahul Gandhi, a leader of India’s main opposition Congress party, said there were reports of violence and “people dying” in the region. Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Gandhi said “things are going very wrong there,” and called for the Indian government to make clear what is happening.
Authorities in Srinagar said Saturday night that there had been instances of stone pelting by protesters but no gun firing by security forces in the past six days. Television images showed cars and people moving in some parts of Kashmir.
Staterun All India Radio quoted the region’s top bureaucrat, Chief Secretary B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, as saying that people were coming out of their homes for Eid shopping.
Junior Home Minister G. Kishan Reddy said communication facilities would be restored in phases. “We have only taken precautionary measures with the view that even small incidents should not occur when a major decision has been made,” the Press Trust of India news agency quoted him as saying.
New Delhi rushed tens of thousands of additional soldiers to one of the world’s most militarized regions to prevent unrest and protests after Modi’s decision to revoke Kashmir’s special status.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said Sunday that India’s crackdown was an attempt to change the demographics of Kashmir by introducing Hindu supremacy to the Muslimmajority area.