KASHMIRIS FIND HOPE IN INDIA’S SHIFT IN LOCAL LAW
Chance of returning to homeland with new regional rights
NORTH COUNTY
Decades after he fled, Sunny Thusoo still dreams of Kashmir, a home he could never said say goodbye to. When he wakes up, he’s in North County, where he’s lived for the last two years.
Thusoo and his family are part of a religious minority group who practice the Hindu faith known as Kashmiri Pandits. In the 1990s, they fled their home state of Kashmir, in India’s northern region. More than 500,000 left after facing persecution from the state’s radical Islamist insurgent groups, who believed the state should be free of Indian rule.
“Individual relationships between Muslims and Hindus were always extremely cordial,” said Thusoo, adding that strains of political tension existed, but didn’t always surface. “We were a society that didn’t even have weapons, but suddenly, there were guns on the street.”
Thusoo and his wife never thought the Pandit community could return — until a few months ago.
In August, the Indian government stripped Kashmir of its special status by revoking a law known as Article 370. The article exempted the region from following the constitution of India. Instead, a separate constitution and flag applied to its people and outsiders were banned from owning land.
Since the revocation in August, Internet blackouts, curfews and an even heavier armed presence have surfaced in the state, known as one of the world’s most militarized zones. Outcry continues against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, with critics saying the revocation violates
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