This report documents international human rights bodies, institutes, INGOs, NGOs, prominent newspapers, prominent personalities, experts and scholars’ statements and news stories that shows Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir has always been on there radar.

"I urge the (Indian) Government to ensure that children are detained as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time, and to prevent all forms of illtreatment in detention. I also urge the (Indian) Government to ensure the implementation of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015, to address the use of children for illegal activities and the situation of detained children. I call upon the government to take preventive measures to protect children, including by ending the use of pellets against children, ensuring that children are not associated in any way to security forces, and endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration and the Vancouver Principles.”

“On the occasion of the second anniversary of the unilateral steps taken in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir since 5 August 2019 to alter the internationally recognized disputed status of the territory as stipulated in the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions, the General Secretariat of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) reiterates its call to revoke all these steps. It urges to refrain from changing the demographic composition of the disputed territory of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and to respect the basic human rights of its inhabitants. Furthermore, the General Secretariat reiterates its call on the international community to increase its efforts to resolve the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.”

I must also reiterate that the United Nations' position on Jammu and Kashmir is governed by the United Nations charter and applicable Security Council resolutions," Bozkir had urged Islamabad to raise the issue of Kashmir at the UN "more strongly" and said a special session could be held on the issue if enough countries petitioned for it.

“Allegations of arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances are part of what appears to be an ongoing pattern of serious violations of human rights by Indian government forces in the Jammu and Kashmir region” according to UN experts. 

 Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Economic Cooperation Organization  

Members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Economic Cooperation Organization (PAECO) strongly condemned human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir, The unanimous declaration was made by the organization's Executive Council meeting, attended by parliament speakers from ECO, which currently has 10 members including Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Afghanistan. "In its landmark outcome document, The Islamabad Declaration, the forum extended unanimous support to the oppressed peoples" of Kashmir and Palestine.

Referring to the Turkish president’s address at the UN General Assembly and the joint session of the Pakistani parliament where he raised his voice in support of the Kashmiri people, Sentop said his country would continue to support Pakistan’s stance on Kashmir.

“As a champion of universal human rights, fundamental freedoms and the ruled-based international order, the EU must raise its voice against the violations of human rights affecting the people of Jammu and Kashmir. In addition to being a humanitarian crisis, the long-standing dispute over Jammu and Kashmir in south Asia also poses a major threat to peace, stability, and security in the region. It is extremely important that the voices of Kashmiri people are heard, their aspirations are responded to and they are granted the opportunity to decide their own future.”

"I don't have a quarrel with the Indian people, and I think it's very important that we're having these discussions we are absolutely clear about who is responsible for this and who is perpetrating this, and (that) is the Indian government is particularly Narendra Modi and the BJP party."

"We should not give up on Kashmir although the tragedy of Kashmir has passed on generations. It is imperative to forgo the blame game and come to a resolution which is humane and gives people their due rights."

"Indian forces are involved in severe human rights abuses in Kashmir and it will continue to happen if conflict resolution is not achieved." Ms. Khan hit out at New Delhi for the detention of Kashmiris following August 2019 actions and urged the US to pressure and compel India to negotiate the Kashmir issue on the table.

"The international community was not sufficiently pressing India to refrain from taking illegal actions and committing human rights violations in Kashmir.” He urged the international community, the US, and UK to pressurize India to stop human rights abuses in Kashmir.

"The people of this region (Jammu and Kashmir) have faced seven decades of extreme human rights abuses, multiple crimes that amounted to acts of genocide, and India's own involvement in terrorist activities that have targeted this region. I wish to pay tribute to local Kashmiris, journalists, and local activists who over the past two years have stepped up their protest, and their resistance. Sadly, many have died. So, many have suffered and I believe we have the responsibility to publicly stand with the people of Kashmir."

The Sixteen members of the European Parliament expressed their concern in a letter to the President of the European Commission, Ursula Von der Leyen, and the Vice-President and High Representative, Joseph Borrell. “It is extremely important that the voices of Kashmiri people are heard, their aspirations are responded to and they are granted the opportunity to decide their own future.” The parliamentarians said the aim of the letter is to bring the attention of the European Commission to, what they described as the “alarming human rights and humanitarian situation in Jammu and Kashmir.” 

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has expressed concern over “grave violations” in Indian-administered Kashmir and has asked the Indian government to end the use of shotgun pellets against children.

“I call upon the government to take preventive measures to protect children, including by ending the use of pellets against children, ensuring that children are not associated in any way to security forces, and endorsing the Safe Schools Declaration and the Vancouver Principles,” he said in the UN Report on Children 2021 

The UN report said at least seven schools were used by the Indian security forces for months. It added that four children were detained by the Indian forces in Indianadministered Kashmir for their alleged association with the armed groups.

The UN chief said he welcomed the positive engagement of the Indian government with the UN’s special representative to implement preventive and accountability measures.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA)-led central government has started its first major political outreach in the Kashmir valley since 5 August 2019, when the special status of the erstwhile state was revoked and its geography was bifurcated into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Under this outreach, New Delhi convened an all-party meeting on July 24 with the valley’s elite club of political leaders—including the chiefs of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and National Conference (NC)—which was a significant development. After the meeting, New Delhi said that exercise of delimitation and peaceful elections were important signposts for the restoration of statehood. The political outreach comes days after the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, had a lengthy meeting with Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha in the presence of NSA Ajit Doval and the Union Home Secretary, Ajay Bhalla.

In the past two years, the valley has witnessed an uneasy calm and issues such as restoration of statehood, delimitation, elections, and even further bifurcation have been points of conjecture; however, the trust and aspirations of the common Kashmiris is more important than the political outreach with the political elites of the Union Territory.

In the past two years, the valley has witnessed an uneasy calm and issues such as restoration of statehood, delimitation, elections, and even further bifurcation have been points of conjecture; however, the trust and aspirations of the common Kashmiris is more important than the political outreach with the political elites of the Union Territory. 

The revocation of Article 370 was deemed as an inevitable technical necessity by New Delhi to politically transform the state, which has been marred by centrifugal tendencies and violent insurgency for the past 30 years. The revocation and subsequent bifurcation was defended by the Union government, which claimed that the decision would facilitate better administration, good governance, and faster economic development. New Delhi even argued that Article 370 was the “root cause” of radicalism, corruption, and terrorism. These arguments essentially quantified the conflict in Kashmir and suggested that the unending violence is supplemented by the aspirations of the common people.

https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/kashmiris-need-good-administration-not-statehood-orelections/

The pandemic has interrupted access to education for young people all over the world. But in the disputed Indian-administered region of Kashmir, students have faced school closures, not just once, but twice.

In 2019, as India revoked the region’s special status and tens of thousands of troops were sent in, a curfew closed all schools in the area.

Then just as schools were beginning to reopen, in 2020 the pandemic hit, forcing millions of students to study online. A BBC investigation has discovered, throughout lockdown, students from more than 150 villages in the area have had no access to online lessons. In the remote Himalayan village of Limber, students must traverse a mountain, all in order to get access to an education.

 https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-asia-57568521

A large movement of troops in recent days has led to rumours flying thick and fast in Kashmir that “something big” like August 2019 was going to happen again. Similar rumours were going agog in Kashmir prior to the revocation of J&K’s special status on 5 August 2019, as massive troop build-up had started to happen 10-days before the colossal decision by the BJP government. Reports say in the last few days a large number of paramilitary forces have arrived in the union territory with most of them deployed in north Kashmir and parts of Jammu region. This has led to rumour mongering and from homes to offices, markets to playgrounds and social media, everywhere people are discussing how the Center is planning “something big” like 5 August 2019. A common rumour is that statehood will be restored to the Jammu region while Kashmir will be divided further into two or three union territories. Another rumour making rounds is that Kashmir Pandits will be given a separate homeland within the Valley which has been their long-pending demand. Not only locals but high-profile politicians too have joined the bandwagon on social media.

 https://www.deccanherald.com/national/north-and-central/rumours-fly-thick-and-fast-inkashmir-due-to-large-troops-movement-994673.html 

Thousands of people, mostly youth, from Kashmir are slipping into the dark alleys of drug addiction as the Valley has been flooded with huge quantities of heroin coming via Line of Control (LoC) from Pakistan in recent years. Doctors at drug de-addiction centre of Institute of Mental health & Neurosciences (IMHANS) in Srinagar said that the facility has been flooded with patients taking deadly drugs like heroin in the recent years. The data revealed that there has been more than 1,500 per cent increase in patients approaching the hospital seeking treatment for substance abuse in three years. While 489 drug abusers had reported at the IMHANS in 2016, the number grew to 7,420 in 2019.

In 2020, the number dropped to 3,536 apparently due to Covid-19 lockdown. Similarly, the Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) registrations have also seen a steep rise at the IMHANS. From 139 patients seeking treatment between 2012-2015, the number grew to 309 in 2016- 2019. But there has been a huge jump as 495 patients reported at the IMHANS de-addiction centre in 2020, while the number has already crossed 500 in just the first five months of this year.

Of the 309 patients who reported from 2016-2019, over 47 per cent were from urban areas, while over 52 per cent were from rural areas. 73.8 per cent among them were unmarried, while 35 per cent were up to the age of 25 years and over 53 per cent were in the age group of 26-35 years. Dr Yasir Rather, in-charge of the de-addiction center of IMHANS, said that the pattern of drug abuse in Kashmir has changed over the years. “Most of the patients we have been receiving since 2018 are heroin addicts and there is a drastic increase in their numbers now,

5 rapporteurs had sought reply from Indian government on alleged ill-treatment, disappearances and torture

Allegations of arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances are part of what appears to be an ongoing pattern of serious violations of human rights by Indian government forces in the Jammu and Kashmir region, according to UN experts. This concern was raised by five UN special rapporteurs in a letter to the Indian government on March 31, 2021 that was made public by the UN on Monday. The rapporteurs examine questions relevant to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; arbitrary detention; enforced or involuntary disappearances; extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering “terrorism.” The experts communicated their concerns to the Indian government by highlighting the cases of three Kashmiri men -- Waheed Para, Irfan Ahmad Dar and Naseer Ahmad Wani. Para, a member of the Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party, which administered Jammu and Kashmir in an alliance with the Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) until 2018, has been under detention since Nov. 25, 2020. The UN rapporteurs said Para was allegedly subjected to ill-treatment at the National Investigation Agency (NIA) headquarters in New Delhi. He was allegedly targeted for speaking out about the government and subjected to abusive interrogations after his arrest which lasted from 10 to 12 hours at a time. “He was held in a dark underground cell at subzero temperatures, was deprived of sleep, kicked, slapped, beaten with rods, stripped naked and hung upside down. His ill-treatment was recorded. Para was examined by a government doctor three times since his arrest last November and three times by a psychiatrist. He requested medication for insomnia and anxiety,” the rapporteurs’ letter said. Also highlighted in the letter was the case of Irfan Ahmad Dar, a 23-year-old shopkeeper who was arrested on Sept. 15, 2020 near his residence in the Sopore area of northern Kashmir by the Jammu and Kashmir police’s Special Operations Group (SOG).

 https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/un-experts-concerned-over-rights-abuses-inkashmir/2260057

ON THE MORNING of October 28, 2020, rights activist Parveena Ahanger was startled by the sound of revving engines outside her home in Srinagar, the biggest city in Indianadministered Kashmir. She closed the Quran she was reading from and peeked through a window; there were nearly a dozen armored vehicles and dozens of police personnel surrounding her house. Some plainclothes officers came inside and ordered Ahanger to shut all the windows and lock all the doors. It was a raid by India’s counterterrorism task force: the National Investigation Agency, or NIA.

Ahanger is the chair of the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons, a collective known as APDP that she founded in 1994 — four years after her teenage son was arrested by Indian armed forces then disappeared. During the raid, NIA officials confiscated the cellphones of her entire family. The agents later drove Ahanger to her office in Hyderpora, on the outskirts of Srinagar, where they seized documents and hard drives.

That same day, the NIA also raided the offices and homes of several journalists and other nonprofit groups. Among the targets was the Jammu Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society, or JKCCS — a group that documents human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir — and the home of its program coordinator. At both of those locations, too, NIA officials confiscated electronic gadgets and seized several documents.

The raids were an escalation in the Indian government’s crackdowns on rights activists, journalists, politicians, and civilians who express dissent and views critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party.

ndia often talks of Kashmir as its “internal matter.” However, it was foreign policy and geopolitical concerns that underlay Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent outreach to a group of Kashmiri political leaders. For instance, countering the Chinese threat, which according to India’s Chief of Defense staff Gen Bipin Rawat himself is India’s top national security priority, was an important reason for New Delhi’s overture to the Kashmiri politicians. The intractable Sino-India border dispute has been getting increasingly complicated. With long rounds of talks between the two sides headed for a stalemate, China has further fortified its infrastructure in the contested region, raising concerns among Indian intelligence agencies that Beijing is preparing to camp there permanently. Chinese troops have also begun raising militias among Tibetan youth, ostensibly to counter the Indian forces. In response to Beijing’s maneuvers, India has moved more of its own troops to the Line of Actual Control, the de facto border between the two countries. But in order to make India’s increased military presence more sustainable, peace and calm in Kashmir is a prerequisite. That’s what Modi’s outreach was aimed at. Developments following Modi’s meeting with the Kashmiri leaders have added urgency to New Delhi’s imperative to normalize the situation in Kashmir.

A week before the region's partial autonomy was abolished, and as a massive troop deployment fanned out to help forestall a local backlash, "Rafiq" was one of thousands put in "preventative detention".

He believes he was arrested because in the past he had "protested against injustices".

Freed after a harrowing year behind bars, the 26-year-old -- too frightened to give his real name -- says he is a "broken man"

Echoing accounts from a dozen other Kashmiris told to AFP, he and 30 others were bundled onto a military aircraft to a jail hundreds of miles from his home where they were "abused and intimidated".

"A bright light was kept on all night in my cell for six months... It was hard to imagine that I would come out alive," he said.

He at least was finally released. Activists say that scores of other Kashmiris are languishing in India's notoriously harsh jails

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210820-in-indian-kashmir-few-now-dare-tospeak-out

On June 24, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met in New Delhi with 14 mainstream political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) including four former chief ministers of the erstwhile state

His outreach to the J&K leaders came almost two years after his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government revoked Article 370 of the Constitution, in effect stripping the state of its autonomy. The BJP government also split J&K into two union territories: Ladakh, and Jammu and Kashmir

After the abrogation of Article 370, Jammu and Kashmir faced a communication blackout for over 200 days. The torchbearers of democracy in the valley, its mainstream political leaders, were detained. Several religious leaders were arrested and kept in various prisons in and outside the Kashmir valley.

The BJP government tried its level best to extinguish any manifestation of dissent in Kashmir. More soldiers were brought in to patrol the streets and confine locals to their homes. Gatherings of over three people were banned. Those who came out on the streets to voice their feelings of betrayal by the Indian government were met with pellet guns. Far from integrating Kashmiris into India, as Home Minister Amit Shah promised, the silencing of Kashmiris alienated them from New Delhi.

 https://thediplomat.com/2021/08/modi-fails-to-follow-up-on-his-outreach-to-kashmirileaders/

Seven years ago, 45-year-old Yasmeen* witnessed the death of her brother, who was caught in a cross-fire between militants and army personnel in Kulgam, 67 km from Srinagar. For years, she was traumatised by the shrieks and the sight of him dying in a pool of blood. She was eventually diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative disorder.

“She is from a poor family and used to procure free medicines from the lone tertiary-care Government Psychiatry Hospital of the valley in Srinagar. But due to the Covid-induced lockdown, she could neither visit the hospital for check-ups nor attend counselling sessions,” Senior Clinical Psychologist Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (IMHANS) Ajaz Ahmad Khan said.

Without her medicines and sessions, she had a “major relapse” in May.

Yasmeen’s is not an isolated case. Manzoor Ahmad* (49) from Tral, 40 km from the summer capital, was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) that left him constantly fearful and cowering. “As his OCD had aggravated, he relapsed badly. With no stable source of income during the lockdown, he could not visit the hospital on time and he stopped taking medicines,” Khan said.

His deterioration was so bad that the local Masjid Committee collected money on his behalf and arranged a cab to bring him to the hospital in June.

Professor at IMHANS, Dr Yasir Rather, said the pandemic has precipitated a lot of mental health issues. The lockdown, fear and uncertainty, financial stressors, emotional stressors, disruption of routine and many other associated changes have resulted in anxiety, depressive features, post-Covid syndrome, disenfranchised grief and other mental issues, especially among the marginalised sections of the society.

https://countercurrents.org/2021/08/pandemic-precipitates-mental-health-issues-in-kashmir/ 

Under the smokescreen of electoral redistricting, New Delhi is using gerrymandering to politically neuter the region’s Muslim majority

The Indian government has commenced preparations to redraw the electoral boundaries in Indian-administered Kashmir two years after New Delhi rescinded the disputed region’s semiautonomous status and introduced tighter federal controls.

In 2019, New Delhi hoped that ratcheting up federal control would make it easier to subdue Kashmir’s population and many groups’ calls for self-determination. It has since unleashed the wrath of federal agencies on local politicians, traders, publishing houses, and even government employees who have been or potentially could become sources of dissent.

Washington, D.C., August 6, 2021– Authorities in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir should cease harassing journalist Qazi Shibli and allow him to report freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. At approximately 1:00 a.m. on August 5, police raided the home of Shibli, editor of the news website The Kashmiriyat, in Anantnag city in central Jammu and Kashmir, for approximately two hours while he was not there, according to Shibli, who spoke with CPJ via phone

Shibli’s mother, two sisters, sister-in-law, two brothers, nephew, and niece were present during the raid at his home, according to Shibli, who said that police confiscated the adults’ phones and computers. Shibli said his own laptop and phone were with him at the time of the raid. At approximately 1:30 a.m. the same day, Kashmir police also searched the homes of Shibli’s cousin and grandmother for roughly 20 and 30 minutes respectively, he said.

The raids on the homes of Qazi Shibli and his family members add to the ongoing pattern of targeted harassment against journalists in Jammu and Kashmir, which must come to an end immediately,” said Steven Butler, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Police should cease harassing Shibli and allow him and other members of the press in Jammu and Kashmir to report freely.”

Police broke the lock of Shibli’s home and forcibly entered the premises without demonstrating a warrant or providing a justification for the raid, according to Shibli. Police also broke several glasses, window panes, and a security camera outside Shibli’s home, and confiscated a CCTV intercom monitor, according to Shibli and photos of his home following the raid, which CPJ  reviewed.

https://cpj.org/2021/08/kashmir-police-raid-homes-of-journalist-qazi-shibli-and-his-familymembers/ 

As Kashmir completes its second year of lockdown, the people most affected have been its daily wage workers, who have endured immense mental and financial stress.

What started off as rumours became the worst possible trauma that the people of Kashmir could have faced on August 5, 2019, when their semi-autonomous status was stripped with the abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35A from the Indian Constitution.

Days before, when an order for 30,000 additional Indian troops was released to the public, there was fear that something major was about to happen. People rushed to stores to gather resources with the expectation that a period of turmoil, which Kashmiris are well accustomed too could last for a long time.

Shortly after, the Annual Amarnath Yatra was cancelled on the pretext of security. During the entire time the government of Jammu and Kashmir claimed that “everything is normal”. But rumours started to swirl that Article 370 was in danger.

Major news then broke out that over 180,000 security personnel were deployed, and there would be a complete communications gag with satellite communication available only to the authorities.

The internet went out on August 5, around 12:30am and within a span of three hours Kashmir was turned into an open prison. Television and local cable networks were stopped, local newspapers were made to stop publishing, and an information vacuum was created.

The next morning, people dusted off their radio devices and listened to how their rights were being stripped from them. Article 370 was taken down and the State of Jammu and Kashmir was divided into two Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

Kashmir remained under communication clampdown for almost six months, with restrictions continuing after that. 

Two years after the Modi administration stripped Indian-administered Kashmir of its limited autonomy, political activity in the disputed region is in a deep freeze, businesses are struggling, while people’s rights are being suppressed through stringent laws. On this day two years ago, India’s Hindu-nationalist government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped the region’s special status guaranteed by India’s constitution decades ago and turned the country’s only Muslim-majority state into a federally controlled territory. 

The move included the removal of a ban on permanent settlement of non-Kashmiris in the region, a step that locals fear is aimed at bringing demographic changes in the region.

The right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government claimed the changes would result in a better development of the region and boost its economy. But experts and political analysts say the situation has only deteriorated in the last two years.

The last state elections in Indian-administered Kashmir were held in 2015, when a regional pro-India party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), allied with the BJP to form the government.

The region has a group of political parties considered loyal to New Delhi. They contest regional and national elections, which are boycotted by the region’s separatist groups, who demand either a merger with neighbouring Pakistan or an independent nation. In 2018, the BJP withdrew its support to the PDP, toppling the government and putting the state under the direct rule of New Delhi.

The next year, as the Modi government scrapped Articles 370 and 35A which granted Indianadministered Kashmir its autonomy, dozens of politicians from the region, including three former chief ministers belonging to pro-India parties, were arrested. Some of them continue to be in jails.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/8/5/kashmir-special-status-india-two-years-humanrights-economy 

Two years ago, on 5 August 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi removed the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir as a state (the only Muslim-majority one in India) and redesignated it as two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh, which are governed directly from Delhi. He also scrapped Article 370 of the Indian constitution, which had allowed J&K to make its own laws, and cancelled Article 35A, which gave its legislature the power to determine who was a permanent resident of the state.

The effective annexation of J&K was overwhelmingly rejected by Kashmiri Muslims. Pakistan virulently opposed it, arguing that because J&K was considered by the United Nations Security Council to be disputed territory, its annexation violated international law.

Modi claimed that this unilateral move would bring peace and development to J&K. Not surprisingly, this action by his Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has only brought more misery and more violence. And, sadly, the future doesn’t look promising.

Within a year, the impact on the economy of J&K was disastrous. Another year later, and notwithstanding the Modi government’s assertions that the political changes had brought socioeconomic development to the region, economic activity has come to a standstill. A double lockdown, political and Covid-driven, has hit the tourism industry very hard. Starved of international tourists, those running the famous house boats on Dal Lake in Srinagar are desperately struggling to survive.

https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/kashmir-endures-another-year-of-utter-despair/ 

Traders in Indian-administered Kashmir have accused police of forcing them to open their shops in the capital, Srinagar, to “portray normalcy” on the anniversary of the revocation of the region’s special autonomy status.

Residents of the disputed region were observing a spontaneous shutdown Thursday to protest the Indian government’s decision to revoke its special status on August 5, 2019 — a move that converted the area from a full-fledged state into two union territories.

Police had warned shopkeepers to refrain from observing a strike on the second anniversary of the scrapping of Indian Kashmir’s limited autonomy.

A shopkeeper who identified himself as Mohammad Ashraf told VOA that he was at his home when one of his neighboring shopkeepers and a friend called him saying that police had cut the locks on his shop and opened it.

Police 'did not care'

“I came running and found my shop open,” Ashraf said, while displaying the broken locks on the floor. “Policemen did not care about the safety of our goods as thieves could have easily emptied the products of the shopkeepers in their absence.” 

Three men in civilian clothes were seen cutting and breaking the locks in the Budshah-Chowk area of Srinagar, under the supervision of a large caravan of police. The incident was recorded in a video that went viral on social media.

For the first time in history, Ashraf said, the Kashmir shops were "forcefully thrown open by cutting and tearing down the locks. Police work to ensure the safety of the public, but here they have turned into burglars.” https://www.voanews.com/south-central-asia/indian-police-force-end-kashmir-shop-protest

Police in Indian-controlled Kashmir fired tear gas and warning shots Tuesday to disperse Shiite Muslims who attempted to participate in processions marking the Muslim month of Muharram. Dozens of people were detained. Hundreds of Muslims chanting religious and profreedom slogans took to the streets in the main city of Srinagar despite security restrictions banning the traditional procession. Government forces used batons to beat journalists covering the procession, according to a local reporter. Authorities erected steel barricades and barbed wire to block the crowds.  

“We respect the religious sentiments and practices of all, but at the same time, it is also our joint responsibility to defeat the ill designs of vested interests who try to disturb the peaceful atmosphere,” police Inspector-General Vijay Kumar said on Twitter.

Muharram is among the holiest months for Shiite Muslims across the world and includes large processions of people beating their chests while reciting elegies to mourn the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson. The mourning reaches its peak on Ashura, the 10th day of the month in the Islamic lunar calendar. Tuesday’s procession marked the eighth day on the calendar. The traditional religious procession turned violent last year as Indian forces fired shotgun pellets to disperse crowds, injuring dozens.

Some main Muharram processions have been banned in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir since an armed insurgency broke out in 1989 demanding the region’s independence from India or its merger with neighboring Pakistan. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict. Kashmiri Muslims have long complained that the government is curbing their religious freedom on the pretext of maintaining law and order while promoting an annual Hindu pilgrimage to the Himalayan Amarnath Shrine in Kashmir that draws hundreds of thousands of visitors. The pilgrimage has been canceled for the last two years because of the coronavirus.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/police-fire-tear-gas-to-break-up-muslim-gatheringin-kashmir/2021/08/17/07a3e71a-ff5c-11eb-87e0-7e07bd9ce270_story.html