Tens of thousands of government forces in riot gear patrol India-held Kashmir. Streets lined with shuttered shops are deserted, steel barricades and razor wire cutting off neighbourhoods. An eerie silence is broken by an occasional security vehicle whizzing past or the cawing of crows.
An unprecedented security lockdown amid a near-total communications blackout entered a fourth day on Thursday, forcing some news organisations to hand-carry dispatches out of the region.
The lives of millions have been upended since the latest and most serious crackdown followed a decision by New Delhi to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and downgrade the Himalayan region from statehood to a territory.
At the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital in Srinagar, doctors said that at least 50 people had come in with wounds from pellet guns and rubber bullets, the ammunition security forces often use to disperse protests.Kashmir’s fury at Indian rule is nothing new. Its roots lie in a broken promise of a UN-administered referendum guaranteed shortly after India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947.
