Kashmir: India’s ‘draconian’ blackout sets worrying precedent, warns UN
The unprecedented communications blackout imposed on Indian-administered Kashmir could signal a departure in the way in which democratic states clamp down on information in contentious areas, the UN’s special rapporteur on freedom of expression, David Kaye, has said.
India’s Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi, made his first public statement on Thursday since the decision to remove Kashmir’s special status, describing it as the start of a “new era” that will help end decades of terrorism and separatism.
Kaye told the Guardian: “There’s something about this shutdown that is draconian in a way other shutdowns usually are not.”
The territory faces its fifth day in a lockdown imposed hours before the Indian government revoked Kashmir’s special status, stripping away the autonomy it was granted in exchange for joining the Indian union after independence in 1947.
Communications are often blocked in Indian-administered Kashmir, but the current clampdown is unprecedented in a time of relative peace. Unlike previous instances, landline phones and cable TV have been cut off. A strict curfew also means people are unable to leave their homes during the day, while only limited movement has been allowed at night.
“I can’t recall a situation where there has been a total blackout of not only the two-way, multi-point communication systems that we are familiar with now – anything on the internet, WhatsApp etc – but also the one-direction communications like TV,” Kaye said.
“That’s pretty extensive and one of my concerns would be – in part because this is happening in a democratic state – it could be seen as a new departure for many states that are thinking about how to clamp down on the flow of information.”
He added that it was hard to identify a set of circumstances where a country shutting down access to the internet, especially for an extensive period of time, was legal under international law.
Before the announcement on Monday, thousands of extra troops were deployed to Kashmir, where the government is likely to face major opposition. An insurgency against Indian rule has been waged for decades, and tens of thousands of people have been killed in the conflict. Despite a heavy security presence and strict curfew, protests have occurred.
The restrictions have prevented people from calling for ambulances, accessing information or checking on family members. On Thursday, an opposition activist filed a petition in India’s highest court challenging the security lockdown and communications block.
In his first address to the nation since parliament was told article 370 – the part of the constitution guaranteeing Jammu and Kashmir special status – had been revoked, Modi described the changes as historic and attempted to assure residents the situation would soon become normal.
“The scrapping of article 370 is the beginning of a new era,” Modi said. Kashmir’s special status had been used by Pakistan “as a weapon to incite people of the region against India”, but now India would rid the region of “terrorism and terrorists”, he added. “There will be a lot of development,” Modi said. “All the citizens will be given their rights.”
Modi said the “mainstreaming” of the Kashmiri people with the rest of the nation would expedite development and create new jobs with investment from public and private companies, and even suggested a cinema industry could flourish. “I think the whole world will come and shoot their films there,” he said. “[This will] bring employment for the people there.”
In other developments on Thursday, the state-run All India Radio reported more than 500 people had been arrested since the clampdown began, and Pakistan had suspended a key rail service with India and banned the screening of Indian films.
A Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman also said authorities were considering approaching the international court of justice for a case against India. The two countries have fought two of their three wars over control of Kashmir.
Indian-administered Kashmir has had a special status since 1954, giving it a degree of autonomy including its own constitution, as well as rules that prevented people from outside the state from buying land in the territory. Many Kashmiris believe this is crucial to protecting the demography and traditions of India’s only Muslim-majority state. Delhi has insisted the ending of auton
omy for the region is an internal matter.
On Wednesday, one man arriving at Delhi’s airport from Srinagar, Kashmir’s biggest city, described the state as being “like a prison”. Soayib Qureshi, a Delhibased lawyer who arrived on the same day, said he had been given a handwritten boarding pass for the flight because this report systems were down.