Kashmir intensifies restrictions after second coronavirus death case

Restrictions on the movement and assembly of people in Kashmir to contain the spread of the coronavirus were intensified on Sunday as the union territory recorded its second COVID-19 death, a day after 13 fresh cases were confirmed, officials said.

The restrictions on the movement and assembly of people in Kashmir continued for the 11th consecutive day on Sunday, they said.

The officials said the curbs across the Valley have been tightened to minimise the movement of the people in order to contain the spread of the virus.

The tighter restrictions came in the wake of the death of second COVID-19 patient early Sunday. He was among the 13 people who tested positive for the virus on Saturday, which was the highest in a single day.

Most of the roads in the valley have been sealed off and barriers have been erected at several places by the security forces to check the unwanted movement of the people and to enforce the lockdown for containing the spread of the coronavirus, the officials said.

The administration has asked the people to cooperate with it and warned of action for violating the prohibitory orders.

The authorities at several places have sought help from 'Imams' (clerics) to appeal to the people to stay indoors.

The clerics had asked the people to offer prayers at home and avoid the mosques.

While the Prime Minister announced the country-wide lockdown on Tuesday evening, the union territory administration here had on Sunday announced a lockdown across Jammu and Kashmir till 31 March as part of its efforts to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

The administration said people involved in essential services including healthcare personnel have been exempted from the restrictions.

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The district administrations have put in place a mechanism to ensure uninterrupted supplies and deliveries of essentials to the general public. Essential commodities will be home-delivered to the residents as part of the mechanism.

Markets across the valley were shut and public transport was off the roads with only pharmacies and groceries allowed to open, the officials said.

Educational institutions across Kashmir have been closed, while all public places including gymnasiums, parks, clubs and restaurants have been shut down more than a week before the nationwide lock down announced by the Prime Minister.

Restrictions were first imposed in many parts of the valley on March 19 to contain the spread of the virus. The measures were taken after a 67-year-old woman from the Khanyar area of the city, who had returned on March 16 from Saudi Arabia after performing Umrah, tested positive for COVID-19.

The total number of positive cases in the valley has gone up to 24 and in the Union territory to 33.

Experts hail SC judgement on internet access in Jammu and Kashmir

The Supreme Court’s judgment on Friday asked authorities to review the suspension of Internet services in Kashmir within seven days was seen by experts as a small step in reducing the government's indiscriminate shutting down of internet access.

The court had held that complete suspension of services should be considered only if “necessary” and “unavoidable”. It further said the freedom of speech and expression and the freedom to practice any profession or carry on any trade, business or occupation over the medium of internet enjoys constitutional protection under Article 19(1)(a) and Article 19(1)(g), thus making it a fundamental right.

NS Nappinai, Supreme Court advocate and cyber law specialist, said India has already gained global notoriety as an enforcer of internet shutdowns. “We’re glad that the ruling recognises the importance of communication channels.

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There are only very specific stringent processes that could invoke these shutdowns,” she said.

“But we have seen rampant and very casual use of these processes. These shutdowns that India has seen, as a trend, need to stop and this SC judgment becomes the first step in reversing the trend," Nappinai said.

Apar Gupta, executive director at Internet Freedom Foundation, said the ruling lays down the basic principles and safeguards to be followed by the government in such cases.

“It also says shutdowns cannot be made indefinitely and cannot be applied indiscriminately...Much now depends on

further government action, and much falls on future actions of the government to comply with the ruling, as well as the court’s own enforcement," Gupta added.

The Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC), a non-profit legal services organisation which maintains an internet shutdown tracker for India, estimates the number of shutdowns between 2012 to now at 381. Of these, 106 were recorded in 2019, including the one in Kashmir, which is the longest recorded shutdown anywhere in the world.

Revocation of Article 370 in Kashmir figures in UK election campaign

The Kashmir issue, against the backdrop of the Indian government's revocation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status, has found its way into the General Election campaign in the UK, with candidates warning against bringing the divisions of the subcontinent into play ahead of the December 12 poll.

Social media messages and chat groups are being used by some Indian diaspora outfits to try and influence voters, with the Opposition Labour Party facing the brunt of the attacks for its perceived “anti-India” stance since it passed a resolution favouring international intervention in Kashmir.

“I don't think we are made better off as a country by continuing the divisions of our homelands, instead we should focus on Britain today. Kashmir is a matter for the people of Kashmir and all conflicts must be resolved within the law and Constitution of India,” said Virendra Sharma, a veteran Indian-origin Labour MP who hopes to win again from his Ealing Southall constituency from west London — a seat he has held for the party since 2007.

“This election is about making a decision about the kind of Britain we want to live in,” he said.

On August 5, India revoked the special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into two Union territories, evoking strong reactions from Pakistan.

India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article370 was an internal matter and also advised Pakistan to accept the reality.

Some of the anti-Labour messages doing the rounds on WhatsApp and Twitter include attacks on the party as being “anti-Hindu” for not condemning protests organised by pro-Pakistani groups in London.

A particular video that is being shared widely depicts a controversial right-wing British journalist being heckled by protesters during the so-called "Free Kashmir" rally on Diwali last month, in an attempt to accuse the Labour Party of blindly supporting “Pakistan's propaganda” over India's abrogation of Article 370 to convert Jammu and Kashmir into Union Territories.

“This is extremely worrying,” says Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi, the first turbaned Sikh to be elected to the UK Parliament in the 2017 election.

The Labour candidate, who hopes to win again from Slough in Berkshire, stresses that the party's resolution on Kashmir, wordings of which have been acknowledged by Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn as being somewhat open to “misinterpretation”, was a focus on human rights and not anti-India in any way.

The resolution read: “Accept that Kashmir is a disputed territory and the people of Kashmir should be given the right of self-determination in accordance with UN resolutions.” Respect British Indians, an umbrella group claiming to represent over 100 British Indian outfits set up on Twitter to lobby Corbyn to withdraw the resolution, has also drafted a “pledge” for every British politician contesting the December 12 election to commit to revoking the “partisan and ill-informed” motion passed by the party at its conference in September.

The Indian diaspora, estimated to represent over 1 million votes in a UK election, have traditionally been wooed by all major parties with attractive photo opportunities at gurdwaras and temples.

However, experts point out that the idea that they could be mobilised into voting en masse over one particular issue is unlikely to be the case.

“While Kashmir may be a potent issue for some in the diaspora community, and therefore expressly concerned over Labour's interventionist stance, it is not for all,” said Rahul Roy-Chaudhury, Senior Fellow for South Asia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a think-tank in London.

“Other factors such as Brexit may be equally important to British Indian diaspora voters, along with differing voting preferences on the basis of origin (a proportion of the diaspora originate from Eastern Africa), socio-economic status, age and traditional voting patterns/party loyalty,” he said.

Sunder Katwala, Director of the integration think-tank British Future, also highlighted the history of subcontinent issues finding their way into British politics without a major impact on the outcome of elections.

He said: “Only a vocal minority of voters would see Kashmir as the primary issue in how to vote in a British General Election”.

“For most British Indian voters, questions of who should lead the country, Brexit, the economy and taxation, schools and hospitals are going to be more important than views on international affairs may often reinforce broader views about (UK Prime Minister) Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn, whether supportive or sceptical, for voters with different views of the India-Pakistan conflict,” he said.

Pakistan PM Imran Khan warns of 'bloodbath' when Kashmir curfew lifted

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan warned on Friday there would be a bloodbath once India lifts its curfew in disputed Kashmir and that any all-out conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations would reverberate far beyond their borders.

Khan made the remarks in an impassioned speech to the annual United Nations General Assembly after India last month removed the decades-old autonomy in the part of Kashmir it controls and detained thousands of people.

"If this goes wrong, you hope for the best, but be prepared for the worst," Khan said.

"If a conventional war starts between the two countries ...anything could happen. But supposing a country seven times smaller than its neighbor is faced with the choice either you surrender or you fight for your freedom till death? "What will we do? I ask myself this question ... and we will fight. ... and when a nuclear-armed country fights to the end, it will have consequences far beyond the borders."

In its clampdown in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, which has a Muslim majority, India flooded the territory - already one of the world's most militarized zones - with troops.

It imposed severe restrictions on movements and cut all telephone, mobile phone and internet connections. Thousands of people were arrested.

New Delhi has since eased some of the curbs, although no prominent detainees have been freed and mobile and internet connections remain suspended.

While warning of the consequences of lifting what he described as an "inhuman curfew," Khan demanded India do so and free all detainees.

He sketched out a scenario under which he said he would pick up arms if had been forced to live under curfew, to witness rapes and to suffer humiliation.

"I picture myself. I am in Kashmir. I have been locked up for 55 days ... and there are rapes, Indian army going into homes, soldiers. Would I want to live this humiliation? Would I want to live like that? I would pick up a gun," he said.

"You are forcing people into radicalization." Muslim-majority Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars over the divided territory.

Both countries rule parts of Kashmir while claiming it in full.

Khan addressed the United Nations a day after the senior US diplomat for South Asia called for a lowering of rhetoric between India and Pakistan, while saying that Washington hoped to see rapid action by India to lift restrictions it has imposed in Kashmir and the release of detainees there.

Khan took direct aim at Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his speech and accused him of being a "life member" of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, a Hindu nationalist organization that he said believed in the "ethnic-cleansing" of Muslims.

The RSS denies any prejudice against Muslims but says it is opposed to appeasement of any community.

Modi, in his address to the U.N. assembly shortly before Khan spoke, made no mention of Kashmir, or Pakistan, concentrating mainly on Indian's efforts to protect the environment.

In Pakistan's portion of Kashmir where many in recent days have been waiting keenly for Khan's address, people were glued to their television sets.

Sohail Iqbal Awan, a lawyer and political activist from the PML-N party, a rival to Khan's, praised the speech and predicted that the United Nations would have to "open its closed ears, eyes and mouth" on the Kashmir issue.

"As a Kashmiri, I felt proud at his balanced, comprehensive and well grounded speech ... despite being his political opponent I am compelled to shower praise on him," he said.

US President Donald Trump met separately with both Modi and Khan on the sidelines of the U.N. gathering. Trump urged Modi to improve ties with Pakistan and "fulfill his promise to better the lives of the Kashmiri people," the White House said.

Letter to BS: The only way to get back PoK is to snatch it from Pakistan

This refers to "India expects to gain control over Pak occupied Kashmir one day: Jaishankar" (September 18). While one tends to agree with the External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's (pictured) well-meaning contention that Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) is part of India and New Delhi expects to have physical jurisdiction over it 'one' day, his added plea that henceforth talks with Pakistan would be only about 'PoK' and not on Kashmir, makes little sense.

Simply put, why talk to a rouge state if PoK is part of India? Moreover, will Pakistan so easily hand over this long yet forcibly held (since 1948) part of Jammu & Kashmir to India notwithstanding some strong voices of protests constantly raising heads against its oppressive and autocratic regime.

India will have to virtually snatch it back if Jaishankar really means business by wishing to have its physical possession one day. Are we geared up for embarking on such a decisive move? It may be easier said than done even though our Army is capable of doing so. Mind you, the entire world is keenly watching India's footsteps in J&K, post the abrogation of Article 370.

India, Pakistan can resolve Kashmir issue themselves: Donald Trump

India and Pakistan can resolve their dispute on Kashmir through discussions, said US President Donald Trump alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi in France on Monday.

"We spoke last night about Kashmir, the Prime Minister really feels he has it (situation) under control. They speak with Pakistan and I'm sure that they will be able to do something that will be very good," said Trump, withdrawing from his earlier statements offering to mediate between the two countries.

"I have very good relationship with both the gentlemen (Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan) and I'm here. I think they can do it (resolve the issue) themselves," he said at a press briefing in Biarritz ahead of his meeting with Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit in France.

Modi rejected any scope for third party mediation between India and Pakistan on Kashmir. "There are many bilateral issues between India and Pakistan, and we don't want to trouble any third country. We can discuss and resolve these issues bilaterally," said Modi.

"When I had called Prime Minister Khan after the elections, I told him that Pakistan has to fight against poverty, India has to also fight against it. Pakistan has to fight against illiteracy and disease, and India has to also fight against them...I told him we should work together for the welfare of our people," Modi was quoted by news agency PTI as saying.

Trump, after a meeting with Imran Khan in July in the White House, had claimed that Modi had asked him to mediate on Kashmir. India rejected that claim and said there can't be any third party intervention on Kashmir.

Trump in August again said he would "certainly intervene if they (India and Pakistan) want me to", but India reiterated Kashmir's bilateral status.

India on August 5 scrapped Kashmir's semi-autonomous status and made it a federally-administered territory. Parliament abrogated Constitution's Article 370 that gave Jammu and Kashmir wide powers to make it own laws.

India's action has drawn protests from Pakistan, where Khan is scheduled to give a speech to his nation about Kashmir.