Kashmir under ‘strict’ lockdown for 9th day
SRINAGAR, India, Aug 13, (AP): Residents of Indian-administered Kashmir were running short of essentials on Tuesday as an unprecedented security lockdown kept people indoors for a ninth day.
India has imposed a near-constant curfew and a communications blackout as it tries to stave off a violent reaction to the government’s decision on Aug 5 to strip Kashmir of its autonomy.
The reaction to India’s unprecedented move has so far been largely subdued. But anti-India protests and clashes have occurred daily, mostly as soldiers withdraw from the streets at dusk. Though the scale of the lockdown is unprecedented, civil resistance to Indian rule is not uncommon in Kashmir, and young men have hurled stones and abuse at police and soldiers.
Indian troops patrolling the disputed region allowed some Muslims to walk to mosques to mark the Eid al-Adha festival on Monday, and shops were opened briefly on previous days.
The lockdown is expected to last at least through Thursday, India’s independence day.
Surveillance drones and military helicopters hovered over Srinagar, the region’s main city. On Sunday, soldiers stopped vehicles in the city’s main business hub, causing a traffic jam just as a low-flying drone passed by, according to Javaid Ahmed, a resident who said he witnessed the scene from a nearby building.