India abolishes held Kashmir’s special autonomy

NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Monday stripped held Kashmir of the special autonomy it has had for seven decades, prompting a furious response from Pakistan and raising fears of further violence in the occupied Muslim-majority Himalayan region.India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party rushed through a presidential decree to scrap from the constitution the disputed territory’s special status.It also moved a bill proposing the Indian-held Kashmir be divided into two regions directly ruled by New Delhi. Ahead of the announcements, tens of thousands of extra Indian troops were deployed in the territory, and a security lockdown was imposed overnight Sunday with all telecommunications there cut.Home Minister Amit Shah, a close ally of Modi, told parliament the president had issued a decree abolishing Article 370 of the constitution, which gives special autonomy to the disputed territory. The decree said the measure came into force “at once”. There were already growing fears among Kashmiris that the special status would be ditched after Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) obtained a large parliamentary majority in recent elections.His party had vowed to fulfil a long-held promise to scrap the laws, and many fear New Delhi wants to change the disputed region’s demographics by allowing non-Kashmiris, mostly Hindus, to buy land locally.The move is set to exacerbate the already worsening situation in held Kashmir. “There will a very strong reaction in Kashmir. It’s already in a state of unrest and this will only make it worse,” Wajahat Habibullah, a former senior bureaucrat in Jammu and Kashmir, told AFP.The announcement sparked chaotic scenes in the Indian parliament, and the main opposition Congress party described it as a “catastrophic step”. One lawmaker from the regional Kashmir-based Peoples Democratic Party tore up a copy of the Indian constitution before being reportedly removed from the chambers by parliamentary marshals.Condemning what she described as Indian democracy’s “darkest day”, former Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti tweeted that Delhi’s move was illegal and unconstitutional, and would make India “an occupational force” in the territory. The announcement follows days of uncertainty in the disputed region that began on Friday when New Delhi ordered tourists and Hindu pilgrims to leave “immediately”. All phones, internet services and cable networks in the restive Himalayan region of more than seven million people were cut at midnight, and only residents issued with a curfew pass were allowed on the streets.Article 370 of the Indian constitution gave special status to the occupied Jammu and Kashmir. It limited the power of the Indian parliament to impose laws in the territory, apart from matters of defence, foreign affairs and communications.

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