...a disputed territory lying between India and Pakistain. After partition, the Paks grabbed half of it and call it Azad (Free) Kashmir. The remainder they refer to as "Indian Occupied Kashmir". They have fought four wars with India over it, the score currently 4-0 in New Delhi's favor. After 72 years of this nonsense, India cut the Gordian knot in 2019, removing the area's special status, breaking off Ladakh as a separate state, and allowing people from other areas to settle (or in the case of the Pandits, to resettle) there....
has seen an average of 20 protests per day against Indian rule over the last six weeks despite a security lockdown to quell unrest, according to a senior government source.
Tensions remain high in the disputed Himalayan region after New Delhi’s controversial decision last month to revoke the territory’s decades old semi-autonomous status.
Despite a curfew, restrictions on movement and the severe curtailment of internet and mobile phone services, public demonstrations against India ‐ mostly in the largest city Srinagar ‐ have been constant, the official said late on Saturday.
Altogether there have been 722 protests since August 5, with Baramulla district in the northwest and Pulwama in the south the biggest hotspots after Srinagar, the source said.
Since that date, nearly 200 civilians and 415 security force members have been injured, according to the source. Ninety-five of the civilians were maimed in the last two weeks, the official said.
So far more than 4,100 people ‐ including 170 local politicians ‐ have been detained across the occupied valley, with 3,000 released in the past two weeks, the source said.
It was unclear whether any politicians were among those released.
Indian authorities have so far insisted that outbreaks of violence have been minimal, and that only five civilians have died since the clampdown started.
The relatives of four of those killed said they believed the security forces were responsible for their deaths.