India promises to lift blackout across Kashmir

INDIA and Pakistan continued to fire across their disputed frontier in Kashmir yesterday as Delhi said it would relax a security crackdown and communications blackout in the region soon.

Pakistan said one of its soldiers had been killed, bringing the death toll to six in less than 24 hours.

The United Nations Security Council discussed the situation later yesterday, after India abolished Kashmir’s special status and enforced the strictest clampdown in the troubled region in years.

Donald Trump urged Imran Khan, Pakistan’s prime minister, to “reduce tensions through bilateral dialogue” with India, a spokesman said – a statement likely to disappoint Islamabad, which wants assistance from the international community.

Telephone and internet links were cut and public assembly banned this month before Delhi removed autonomy for the Muslim-majority territory. Hundreds of political leaders and activists are still being detained.

As India’s supreme court heard a petition from a newspaper editor seeking to restore communication links so journalists could work, a government lawyer said the curbs were due to be lifted in the “next few days”, according to a Reuters report.

Narendra Modi, the prime minister, has said the abolition of self-rule is necessary to speed up Kashmir’s development and ensure its full integration into India.

India and Pakistan have clashed over the territory since independence in 1947.

Pakistan’s military said a “brave son of soil” had died in an exchange of fire in Buttal town. Three soldiers and two civilians died on Thursday, Pakistan said earlier.

The UN meeting was behind closed doors and stopped short of the emergency meeting that had been sought by Islamabad.