Eid is just days away, and the central market in Srinagar, Lal Chowk, should be bustling with people. Every year crowds flock to its stalls to buy clothes, jewellery and sweets. Sheep and goats – traditionally offered as a sacrifice – are brought to the market by nomads from the Kashmir mountains.
But this week Lal Chowk was deserted. On Wednesday, only two men – armed Indian police – stood opposite the market’s shuttered shops and ice-cream parlours.
Srinagar, the main city in Kashmir, is in complete lockdown following a dramatic announcement by the Indian government on Monday, which stripped the territory of its autonomy and divided it in two.
“Our lives will be different. This is injustice,” says Nusrat Amin who was out on the empty streets of Srinagar trying to buy medicine. “We are compelled to come out on roads and fight against the oppression.”
Under the changes, Kashmir’s constitution and flag will disappear. Rules that have prevented people from outside Kashmir buying land in the territory, India’s only Muslim-majority state, are also scrapped. Many Kashmiris fear the demography of the state, and their way of life, could be altered.
Pakistan responded angrily, with the prime minister, Imran Khan, suggesting India could carry out ethnic cleansing, while China called the decision “unacceptable”.
The voices of Kashmiris – whose future will be dramatically affected by the government’s actions – have been almost completely silenced. Hours before the announcement, millions of people in the territory were placed under strict curfew and a wide-ranging communications blackout.
In residential areas, where a few people venture outside to sit in side lanes, there is a deep sense of anger and betrayal.
With the end of British colonial rule, the Indian subcontinent is partitioned into predominantly Hindu India and mainly Muslim Pakistan. Mass migrations follow, with Hindus and Muslims moving to their country of choice. More than a million people are killed in the communal violence that ensues.
India and Pakistan fight their first war over control of Muslim-majority Kashmir, a kingdom ruled by Hindu Maharaja Hari Singh. The war ends in 1948 with a UN brokered ceasefire, leaving Kashmir divided between the nations, with the promise of a referendum to chose which nation its people wish to join.
A second war erupts over Kashmir, with India and Pakistan agreeing to a UN-mandated ceasefire the following month.
The third war between India and Pakistan is fought in East Pakistan, ending with the creation of independent Bangladesh.
India detonates a nuclear device in the first confirmed nuclear test by a non-permanent member of the UN security council.
India and Pakistan sign an agreement that neither will attack each other’s nuclear installations or facilities; it takes effect in 1991.
Armed resistance to Indian rule in Kashmir begins. India says Pakistan supports local fighters with weapons and training, which Pakistan denies, saying it only gives local Kashmiris “moral and diplomatic” support.
India detonates five nuclear devices and Pakistan responds by detonating six of its own. International sanctions are imposed against both.
A car bombing of a paramilitary convoy in Indian-controlled Kashmir kills 40 Indian soldiers. Militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, headquartered in Pakistan, claims responsibility. India blames Pakistan and promises a “crushing response”.”
“[On the one hand] they say Kashmir is ours, but at the same time they kill us,” says Mohammad Rafiq, who describes himself as a citizen of Kashmir. “Whatever they are doing here is by power and force,” he says. Many accuse India of wanting Kashmir’s land, but not Kashmiris.
In Srinagar, people are used to curfews and living under a heavy security presence, but the current clampdown is far more intense. Officers from the Central Reserve Police Force, India’s armed police – who wear helmets and carry rifles – vastly outnumber Jammu and Kashmir police, who carry batons. Officers, some of whom have never been to Kashmir before, cover every corner.
“When a child looks out from a window, he sees Indian forces with heavy weapons. What sort of impression would he get on his mind?” says Rafiq. “Will you win the people of Kashmir by love or with the gun or power?”
Communications blackout
The clampdown on communications is equally harsh, and it is likely that people from outside the city have still not heard about the Indian government’s announcement. Landlines, mobile, internet coverage and, for many, cable TV have all been blocked.
People cannot call relatives, or call ambulances if there is an emergency. Public transport is not running, which means those with health problems can only get to a hospital if they have a car – and even then they struggle to get far.
Across the city, many roads are permanently blocked by loops of barbed wire. At checkpoints, people – including families with children – can be seen pleading with officers to let them pass. Most people, nervous that tensions were building last week, had stocked up on food and essentials, but it’s not known how long the curfew will last.
On some streets, broken bricks lie in the roads, left over from groups pelting the government forces with stones. At dusk, the sound of teargas canisters can be heard. The security presence is huge, but there are protests taking place at a neighbourhood-level.
At the Shri Maharaja Hari Singh hospital, doctors are treating at least 50 people with wounds from pellet guns and rubber bullets, according to reports by the Associated Press.
Hundreds of politicians and activists have reportedly been arrested and taken to temporary detention centres, apparently to prevent violence.
Some of Kashmir’s most prominent political leaders, people who have formed alliances with parties such as India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, remain in detention. The entire political spectrum in Kashmir is opposed to the revocation of the territory’s special status.
‘We have no hope’
In Srinagar, Kashmir’s biggest city, some are disillusioned with mainstream political leaders. Mir Shahid, a local shopkeeper who was sitting outside his closed shop says he has little faith.
“These pro-Indian [Kashmiri] leaders are nothing and we have no hope from them,” he says, pointing out that the voter turnout is extremely low. “How can we expect them to represent the people of Kashmir. They are not our leaders.”
As soon as restrictions are lifted, it is likely there will be a backlash from the people of Kashmir, says Adnan Ashraf, spokesperson Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Conference. “I’m certain that Kashmiris will erupt,” he says, adding that in the long term, India has given the Kashmiris “enough reason to welcome people who they think will fight on their behalf,” pointing to America’s imminent withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Neighbouring Pakistan, which also claims Kashmir, has responded to the crisis by announcing plans to expel India’s top diplomat and to suspend trade. The countries have fought two of their three wars over control of Kashmir.
Who controls Kashmir?
The region in the foothills of the Himalayas has been under dispute since India and Pakistan came into being in 1947.
Both claim it in full, but each controls a section of the territory, separated by one of the world’s most heavily militarised borders: the ‘line of control’ based on a ceasefire border established after a 1947-48 war. China controls another part in the east.
India and Pakistan have gone to war three times over Kashmir, most recently in 1999. Artillery, mortar and small arms fire are still frequently exchanged.
How did the dispute start?
After the partition of colonial India in 1947, small, semi-autonomous ‘princely states’ across the subcontinent were being folded into India or Pakistan. The ruler of Kashmir dithered over which to join until tribal fighters entered from Pakistan intent on taking the region for Islamabad.
Kashmir asked Delhi for assistance, signing a treaty of accession in exchange for the intervention of Indian troops, who fought the Pakistanis to the modern-day line of control.
In 1948, the UN security council called for a referendum in Kashmir to determine which country the region would join or whether it would become an independent state. The referendum has never been held.
In its 1950 constitution, India granted Kashmir a large measure of independence. But since then it has eroded some of that autonomy and repeatedly intervened to rig elections and dismiss and jail democratically elected leaders.
What is Kashmir’s special status?
Kashmir’s special status, given in exchange for joining the Indian union, has been in place since 14 May 1954. Under article 370, the state was given a separate constitution, a flag, and autonomy over all matters except for foreign affairs and defence.
An additional provision, article 35a, prevented people from outside the state buying land in the territory. Many Kashmiris believed this was crucial to protecting the demography of the Muslim-majority state and its way of life.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata party repeatedly promised to scrap such rules, a long-term demand of its Hindu nationalist support base. But analysts warned doing so would almost certainly ignite unrest.
On Monday 5 August 2019, the government issued a presidential order to abolish Kashmir’s special status. The government argued that the provision was only intended to be temporary and that scrapping it would boost investment in Kashmir. Critics, however, said the move would escalate tensions with Pakistan – which quickly called India’s actions illegal – and fuel resentment in Kashmir, where there is an insurgency against Indian rule.
What do the militants want?
There has been an armed insurgency against Indian rule over its section of Kashmir for the past three decades. Indian soldiers and Pakistan-backed guerrillas fought a war rife with accusations of torture, forced disappearances and extra-judicial killing.
Until 2004, the militancy was made up largely of Pakistani and Afghan fighters. Since then, especially after protests were quashed with extreme force in 2016, locals have made up a growing share of the anti-India fighters.
For Indians, control of Kashmir – part of the country’s only Muslim-majority state – has been proof of its commitment to religious pluralism. For Pakistan, a state founded as a homeland for south Asian Muslims, it is the last occupied home of its co-religionists.
Michael Safi and Rebecca Ratcliffe
In a speech to the nation on Thursday, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, promised he would bring development and prosperity to Kashmir, and that his actions would help rid the state of terrorism. But many in Kashmir, who can’t watch TV, won’t have heard his words.
The economic consequences of the shutdown are grave. Hafeez Ahmed, a tour operator, says the decision to evacuate tourists and thousands of Hindu pilgrims last week was unprecedented. The industry was just starting to recover, following a suicide car bombing in February that killed dozens of Indian paramilitaries.
“Tourists who used to come are more than our guests,” he says.
“Our Kashmir is so caring that we used to give food to Yatris (Hindu pilgrims) even in the worst times. And they have evacuated all the tourists and Yatris. Shame on them,” he says.
Everyone’s businesses are suffering. The timing of the clampdown, right before Eid, a huge boost to the economy, couldn’t have been worse.
“People like me no longer have any faith or any expectation in the parliament of India,” said Ashraf, adding that he party he represents believed in a shared and common future within the union of India.
“It’s a majoritarian India trampling down on the rights and freedoms of Kashmiris,” he said. “It’s a monumental and historic disaster.”
