India's government has revoked the special status of India-administered Kashmir, in a move that risks fuelling already heightened tensions with neighbouring Pakistan.

Monday's presidential decree revokes Article 370 of India's constitution that guaranteed special rights to the Muslim-majority state, including its right to its own constitution and decision-making process for all matters except defence, communications and foreign affairs.

The legislation introduced alongside the decree still needs the approval of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led parliament.

In the lead-up to its move, India sent thousands of additional troops to the region, imposing a curfew on parts of it, shutting down telecommunications and arresting political leaders.

Both New Delhi and Islamabad claim Kashmir in full, but rule it in part. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two of their three wars over the disputed territory.

The United Nations has urged the two countries to exercise restraint.

Here are all the latest updates:

India warned China that the government's move to strip Kashmir of its autonomy and split the region into two parts was an "internal matter" after Beijing slammed the "unilateral" decision.

 

Beijing was particularly critical of India's decision to turn Kashmir's mostly Buddhist region of Ladakh into an administrative territory directly ruled by New Delhi.

 

"China is always opposed to India's inclusion of the Chinese territory in the western sector of the China-India boundary into its administrative jurisdiction," China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

 

"Recently India has continued to undermine China's territorial sovereignty by unilaterally changing its domestic law. Such practice is unacceptable and will not come into force.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said his government would challenge the Indian move to change the constitutional status of India-administered Kashmir at the United Nations Security Council, urging the international community to intervene in the crisis or risk regional destabilisation.

"We will raise this at every level, at the United Nations Security Council," said Khan, addressing a joint session of Pakistan's parliament in the capital, Islamabad.

"We are thinking of how we can go to the [International Court of Justice] through the UN Security Council ... we will raise this issue at every forum."

Pakistan army will 'go to any extent' to support Kashmir

Pakistan's army chief said the country's military will "go to any extent" to support people in the contested region after India's move,

"Pakistan Army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end," General Qamar Javed Bajwa said following a meeting with top commanders in Rawalpindi.

"We are prepared and shall go to any extent to fulfil our obligations in this regard," he added, without elaborating further.

The lower house of India's parliament was set to ratify the bill downgrading the governance of the India-administered portion of Kashmir.

Members of the Lok Sabha were debating the "Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill" a day after the legislation was introduced alongside the presidential decree revoking Article 370.

The bill downgrades the region from a state into two federally administered union territories: Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh. Jammu and Kashmir would still have its own legislature, while Ladakh would not.

Kashmir on edge as India tightens grip on disputed region

A communications blackout and a security lockdown in Indian-administered Kashmir prompted anger and fear among residents.

Sheikh Mushtaq, 55, said he has lost contact with his daughter who was forced to leave her university in southern Jammu on Monday because of the lockdown. "We are helpless," he said.

The security measures have also hit businesses hard ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. </s> Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has vowed to use "every forum" to force New Delhi to reverse its decision to strip Indian-administered Kashmir of its special status and split the Himalayan state.

Addressing a joint session of parliament on August 6, Khan pledged to raise the matter with heads of state and take the issue to the UN Security Council and the International Criminal Court.

He told lawmakers in Islamabad that India's actions, which he called illegal under international law, could lead to an all-out conflict between the two nuclear-armed neighbors, adding, "No one will be the winner in that case."

Earlier, Pakistan's army chief, General Qamar Bajwa, said the military would "go to any extent" to support the people of Kashmir in their "just struggle."

There is a long-running insurgency in Indian-administered part of Kashmir, which is divided between the two neighbors.

The Muslim-majority region is claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan.

Two of the three wars the two countries have fought since their 1947 independence from British rule were over Kashmir.

The Indian side of Kashmir remained locked down on August 6 as India's lower house of parliament approved the revocation of Kashmir's special constitutional status that gave it significant autonomy from the rest of the country.

The chamber also cleared a bill to split the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories, a day after the upper house backed the measures.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said India's decisions were "unacceptable" and that New Delhi needed to be cautious on border issues, drawing a rebuke from the Indian government that the status of Jammu and Kashmir was an "internal matter."

The U.S. State Department earlier expressed concern "about reports of detentions" and urged "respect for individual rights and discussion with those in affected communities."

It called on "all parties to maintain peace and stability along the Line of Control" that serves as a de facto border between India and Pakistan in Kashmir.

Amid fears of fresh violence in the Indian-ruled part of Kashmir, India's moves were accompanied by a telecoms blackout in the region, restrictions on public movement, and the deployment of thousands of troops.

Despite the measures, sporadic protests were reported.

Protests also continued in Pakistani-administered Kashmir and Pakistan for a second day, with hundreds of people shouting anti-Indian slogans.

Meanwhile, Pakistan and India's fierce cricket rivalry spilled over into politics as former stars from the two countries traded barbs over New Delhi's decision.

"Kashmiris must be given their due rights as per #UN resolution. The rights of Freedom like all of us," Pakistan's Shahid Afridi, who announced his retirement from international cricket last year, tweeted.

"Why was @UN created & why is it sleeping? The unprovoked aggression & crimes being committed in Kashmir against #Humanity must be noted. [U.S. President Donald Trump] must play his role to mediate."

Indian Gautam Gambhir, who quit cricket in December and is now a member of parliament for Prime Minister Narenda Modi's party, later took a swipe at Afridi on Twitter, writing: "There is 'unprovoked aggression,' there r 'crimes against humanity'."

Afridi should be "lauded for bringing this up," he said. "Only thing is he forgot to mention that all this is happening in 'Pakistan Occupied Kashmir.' Don't worry, will sort it out son!!!"

With reporting by Reuters, dpa, the BBC, and AFP </s> NEW DELHI - India's government revoked disputed Kashmir's special status with a presidential order Monday as thousands of newly deployed troops arrived and internet and phone services were cut in the restive Himalayan region where most people oppose Indian rule.

Home Minister Amit Shah announced the revocation amid an uproar in India's Parliament and while Kashmir was under a security lockdown that kept thousands of people inside their homes. The decree needs the approval of the ruling party-controlled Parliament, which was debating it on Monday.

The order revokes Article 370 of India's Constitution, eliminating the state of Jammu and Kashmir's right to its own constitution and decision-making process for all matters except defence, communications and foreign affairs. The government's action would also strip Kashmir of its protection from Indians from outside the state permanently settling, buying land, holding local government jobs and securing educational scholarships.

Critics of India's Hindu nationalist-led government see the move as an attempt to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers.

The announcement came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened a Cabinet meeting and the government's top-decision making body on security matters, the Cabinet Committee on Security, which he heads.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim the region in its entirety. Two of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought since their independence from British rule were over Kashmir.

Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, told a Pakistani TV station on Monday from Saudi Arabia, where he is on a pilgrimage to Mecca, that Pakistan will step up diplomatic efforts to prevent the order from taking effect.

"India is playing a very dangerous game by changing the status of Kashmir through illegal acts," he said.

In Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, hundreds of Kashmiri activists rallied against the change in Kashmir's status near the diplomatic enclave where India's embassy is located. Authorities kept demonstrators away from the building because of security concerns.

Ghulam Mohammad Safi, a prominent Kashmiri leader in Pakistan, urged the United Nations and the international community to help Kashmir achieve self-determination.

The president of the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir, Sardar Masood Khan, also rejected the Indian presidential order and said it could lead to a war with Pakistan.

Jammu and Kashmir's former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufi, tweeted that the Indian government's decision is "illegal" and "unconstitutional."

Government officials said the presidential order will take effect after it is approved by Parliament, which is controlled by Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

Shah also introduced the "Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill" which, if passed, would split the state into two union territories — Jammu and Kashmir, which will have an elected legislature, and Ladakh, which will be ruled directly by the central government without a legislature of its own.

Currently, the state of Jammu and Kashmir comprises three regions: Hindu-majority Jammu, Muslim-majority Kashmir and Buddhist-majority Ladakh.

The reaction in Ladakh, a pristine, sparsely populated area that stretches from the Siachen Glacier to the Himalayas, was mixed, said Tsewang Gyalson, a guide whose family's roots are centuries deep.

"Some fear that people from outside will come and start business or will buy lands. Maybe slowly our identity will disappear," he said.

India's former finance minister, Arun Jaitley, hailed the government's decision to remove Article 370, praising Modi and Shah for "correcting a historical blunder."

"A historical wrong has been undone today," he tweeted.

Regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir had earlier called attempts to revoke Article 370 an aggression against the people.

Many political parties in other Indian regions, however, welcomed the decision.

"In a real sense today, Jammu and Kashmir has become part of India. My party supports this resolution," Prasanna Acharya, leader of the Biju Janata Dal party, said in Parliament's upper house.

The provision dates to 1927, when an order by the administration of the then-princely state of Jammu and Kashmir gave its subjects exclusive hereditary rights. Two months after India won independence from British rule in August 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, signed a Treaty of Accession for the state to join the rest of the union, formalized in Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

Further discussions culminated in the 1952 Delhi Agreement, a presidential order that extended Indian citizenship to the residents of the state but left the maharaja's privileges for residents intact.

Late Sunday in Kashmir, government forces laid steel barricades and razor wire on roads and intersections to cut off neighbourhoods in Srinagar, the region's main city. The government issued a security order banning public meetings, rallies and movement and said schools would be closed.

Authorities also suspended internet services on cellphones, a common tactic to prevent anti-India demonstrations from being organized and to stop the dissemination of news.

The order affects about 7 million people living in the region, including journalists who faced difficulties in relaying information to the outside world.

It was unclear when the security measures would be lifted, or the extent to which many Kashmiris were aware of the presidential order being debated in Parliament, since access had been cut off.

The security deployment in recent days added at least 10,000 soldiers and other forces in Kashmir, which was already one of the world's most militarized regions. India also ordered thousands of tourists and Hindu pilgrims to leave the region.

Tensions also have soared along the Line of Control, the volatile, highly militarized frontier that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

Modi and his Hindu nationalist party won reelection early this year on a platform that included promises to do away with special rights for Kashmiris.

In a statement, Amnesty International India said the move could "cause unrest and wide scale protests in the state."

Rebels in Indian-controlled Kashmir have been fighting Indian control since 1989. Most Kashmiris support the rebels' demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control. About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian crackdown.

Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report. </s> ISLAMABAD - Pakistan began a special joint session of its parliament Tuesday to discuss a possible response a day after rival India revoked the special status for Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region both the countries claim in its entirety.

New Delhi added a special provision to its constitution in 1949 providing autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir, allowing the region to have its own constitution, a separate flag and independence over all matters except foreign affairs, defense and communications. India’s Hindu nationalist-led government scrapped the constitutional provision on Monday.

 

 Prime Minister Khan told an emergency session of the Pakistani parliament the Indian action would intensify the ongoing insurgency in the majority-Muslim Kashmir, and the ensuing tensions could trigger another war between the two nuclear-armed nations.

 

 The Pakistani leader said the conflict could eventually lead to an exchange of nuclear weapons, and Khan asked whether the world is prepared for the worst.

 

 “No one will win that war. Everyone will lose that war. It will have implications for the entire world … I am not indulging in a nuclear blackmail. Hope for the best, be prepared for the worst. This is why I am appealing to the world to intervene and stop India from blatantly tearing apart international laws,” said the prime minister.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has long campaigned for ending the special status granted to Kashmir, saying it hampered development and encouraged youth there to join insurgents fighting Indian rule.

Pakistan swiftly condemned and rejected Monday’s announcements by India as “illegal steps.”

“No unilateral step by the government of India can change this disputed status, as enshrined in the United Nations Security Council [UNSC] resolutions. Nor will this ever be acceptable to the people of Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The country’s top military commanders held a special meeting Tuesday to review the security situation in the wake of India’s controversial move.

Following its special meeting Tuesday the Pakistani army said in a statement that Islamabad had never recognized the provisions New Delhi revoked because they were part of what the statement said was India’s “sham” efforts to legalize its "occupation” of Kashmir.

“[The] Pakistan army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end. We are prepared and shall go to any extent to fulfill our obligations in this regard,” the statement quoted the army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, as saying.

Anti-India protests also erupted Tuesday in cities across the Islamabad-administered one-third of Kashmir and in several major Pakistani cities.

Meanwhile, a senior American diplomat arrived in Islamabad Tuesday for pre-scheduled bilateral meetings. Pakistani officials said the latest developments in Kashmir were likely to figure high in the talks with Alice Wells, the U.S. principal deputy assistant secretary of state in charge of South and Central Asian affairs.

Ahead of Monday's announcements, the Indian government deployed tens of thousands of additional troops in Kashmir, arrested local political leaders, including former chief ministers, imposed a security lockdown and cut off all telecommunications as well as cable television networks to deter agitation.

In its immediate reaction on Monday, the United States said it was “closely" following developments in Kashmir. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Monday urged India and Pakistan to “exercise restraint” following India’s announcement.

"We are concerned about reports of detentions and urge respect for individual rights and discussion with those in affected communities, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement. She called on “all parties to maintain peace and stability along the Line of Control [the de facto Kashmir border].”

Critics warn the move will likely exacerbate ongoing bloody rebellion in Kashmir and deteriorate military tensions between India and Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons, who have already fought two wars over the divided region.

The Muslim insurgency and the ensuing Indian security crackdown are estimated to have killed 70,000 people in Kashmir over the past three decades. New Delhi has consistently accused Islamabad, particularly the country’s powerful military, of being behind the militancy.

Pakistan rejects the charges and maintains it only provides diplomatic and moral support to the separatists. End. </s> India scraps special status for Kashmir in move that Pakistan calls illegal

India has revoked the special status of Kashmir, the Himalayan region that has long been a flashpoint in ties with neighbouring Pakistan, moving to grasp its only Muslim-majority region more tightly.

In the most far-reaching political move in one of the world's most militarised regions in nearly seven decades, India said it would scrap a constitutional provision that allows the state of Jammu and Kashmir to make its own laws.

Foreign ministry officials later briefed envoys of several countries on the changes to the state's administrative status, saying they were aimed at promoting good governance, social justice and economic development.

The government also lifted a ban on property purchases by non-residents, opening the way for Indians to invest and settle there, just as they can elsewhere in India.

The measure is likely to provoke a backlash in the region.

Pakistan to use 'all possible options to counter illegal steps'

Pakistan, which also claims Kashmir, said it strongly condemned the decision, which is bound to further strain ties between the nuclear-armed rivals.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said the move "was in clear violation of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions" in the region, according to a statement released after a telephone call with Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Monday evening.

India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir, where a nearly 30-year armed revolt has killed tens of thousands of people. Hundreds of thousands of Indian troops have been deployed to quell it.

India blames that rebellion on Pakistan, which denies the accusation, saying that it backs the right to self-determination for Kashmir.

Hours earlier the Indian government launched a security crackdown in the region, arresting local leaders, suspending telephone and internet services and restricting public movement in the main city of Srinagar.

Local TV channels citing Press Trust of India reported that former Kashmiri chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah had been detained at a state guest house.

Regional leaders have previously said stripping Kashmir's special status amounts to aggression against its people.

In Pakistan there was anger at India, with protests extending to the capital, Islamabad and the southern commercial centre of Karachi.

In Muzaffarabad, 45 kilometres from the two countries' contested border, dozens of protesters held black flags and burnt car tyres, chanting "Down with India".

Tension had risen in Kashmir since Friday, when Indian officials issued an alert over possible militant attacks by Pakistan-based groups.

Pakistan rejected those assertions, but thousands of alarmed Indians left the region over the weekend.

On Sunday, Mr Khan said the tension had the potential to become a regional crisis and the time was right for US President Donald Trump to mediate.

In July, Mr Trump said Mr Modi had asked him if he would like to be a mediator on Kashmir, but India, which has been staunch in its position that the issue can only be resolved bilaterally, denied that Mr Modi sought mediation. </s> ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's prime minister pledged on Thursday his country would release a captured Indian fighter pilot, a move that could help defuse the most serious confrontation in two decades between the nuclear-armed neighbors over the disputed region of Kashmir.

Prime Minister Imran Khan made the announcement in an address to both houses of Parliament, saying he tried to reach his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Wednesday with a message that he wants to de-escalate tensions.

"We are releasing the Indian pilot as a goodwill gesture tomorrow," Khan told lawmakers. He did not say whether the release was conditional.

An Indian government official, speaking on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly, warned that even if the pilot is returned home, New Delhi would not hesitate to strike its neighbor first if it feared a similar militant attack was looming. Modi earlier in the day warned that "India's enemies are conspiring to create instability in the country through terror attacks."

Khan also said that he had feared Wednesday night that India might launch a missile attack, but the situation was later defused. He did not elaborate.

"Pakistan wants peace, but it should not be treated as our weakness," Khan said "The region will prosper if there is peace and stability. It is good for both sides."

Meanwhile, fresh skirmishes erupted Thursday between Indian and Pakistani soldiers along the so-called Line of Control that divides disputed Kashmir between the two nuclear-armed rivals.

India's army said Pakistani soldiers were targeting nearly two dozen Indian forward points with mortar and gunfire. Lt. Col. Devender Anand, an Indian army spokesman, called it an "unprovoked" violation of the 2003 cease-fire accord between the two countries. He said Indian soldiers were responding to ongoing Pakistani attacks along the highly militarized de facto frontier.

A young woman was killed and two others, including an off-duty soldier, were wounded in the shelling in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said.

World powers have called on the nations to de-escalate the tensions gripping the contested region since a Feb. 14 suicide bombing killed over 40 Indian paramilitary troops in Indian-controlled Kashmir. India responded with a pre-dawn airstrike on Tuesday inside Pakistan, the first such raid since the two nations' 1971 war over territory that later became Bangladesh.

The situation then escalated further with Wednesday's aerial skirmish, which saw Pakistan say it shot down two Indian aircraft, one of which crashed in Pakistan-held part of Kashmir and the other in India-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan later aired a video of a man it identified as the Indian pilot.

India acknowledged one of its MiG-21s, a Soviet-era fighter jet, was "lost" in skirmishes with Pakistan. India's Ministry of External Affairs said late Wednesday that it "strongly objected to Pakistan's vulgar display of an injured personnel of the Indian Air Force," and that it expects his immediate and safe return.

India also said it shot down a Pakistani warplane, something Islamabad denied.

Kashmir has been divided but claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan since almost immediately after the two countries' creation in 1947. They have fought three wars against each other, two directly dealing with the disputed region.

Both Indian and Pakistani officials reported small-arms fire and shelling along the Kashmir region into Thursday morning. There were no reported casualties.

Authorities in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir closed all schools and educational institutions in the region and are urged parents to keep their children at home amid mounting tension with neighboring India. Pakistan's airspace remained closed for a second day Thursday, snarling air traffic.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Faisal acknowledged his country received a "dossier" from India about the Feb. 14 attack. He refused to provide details about the information that New Delhi has shared.

World leaders weighing in on the tension included President Donald Trump, who began remarks at a news conference Thursday in Vietnam after meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by focusing on India and Pakistan.

"I think hopefully that's going to be coming to an end," Trump said, without elaborating. "It's been going on for a long time — decades and decades. There's a lot of dislike, unfortunately, so we've been in the middle trying to help them both out, see if we can get some organization and some peace, and I think probably that's going to be happening."

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also said Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia's minister of state for foreign affairs, planned to come to Islamabad with an urgent message from the kingdom's powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Modi, in his first remarks since the pilot's capture, gave a rallying speech ahead of elections in the coming months.

"Our defense forces are serving gallantly at the border," he told tens of thousands gathered across the country to listen to him in a videoconference from New Delhi. "The country is facing challenging times and it will fight, live, work and win unitedly."

Just weeks before general elections are due in India, the head of Modi's party in India's Karnataka state, B.S. Yeddyurappa, said India's pre-dawn airstrikes in Pakistan on Tuesday would help the party at the polls.

The violence Wednesday marked the most serious escalation of the long-simmering conflict since 1999, when Pakistan's military sent a ground force into Indian-controlled Kashmir at Kargil. That year also saw an Indian fighter jet shoot down a Pakistani naval aircraft, killing all 16 on board.

This latest wave of tension between the two rivals first began after the militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad claimed responsibility for a Feb. 14 suicide bombing on Indian paramilitary forces on the Indian side of Kashmir that killed more than 40 troops.

India long has accused Pakistan of cultivating such militant groups to attack it. Pakistan has said it was not involved in that attack and was ready to help New Delhi in the investigation.

Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India; Ashok Sharma and Emily Schmall in New Delhi; Roshan Mughal in Muzafarabad, Pakistan; Adam Schreck in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. </s> Indian Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday moved a proposal to revoke the contentious Article 370 from occupied Kashmir, triggering chaos in Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Indian parliament, as opposition lawmakers shouted slogans and started protesting.

Shah proposed that all regulation under Article 370 will not be applicable after Presidential nod, reported India Today.

According to First Post, Article 370 "specifies that except for Defence, Foreign Affairs, Communications and ancillary matters (matters specified in the Instrument of Accession), the Indian Parliament needs the state government's concurrence for applying all other laws. Thus, the state's residents lived under a separate set of laws, including those related to citizenship, ownership of property, and fundamental rights, as compared to other Indians."

With an indefinite security lockdown in place in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK) and elected representatives under house arrest, a cabinet meeting was held on Monday morning at Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence.

After the meeting, Shah, who is also the president of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), addressed the Rajya Sabha amid loud protests by the opposition.

Journalists as well as opposition members in India have been questioning the reasoning behind the clampdown as well as placing former IoK chief ministers — Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti — under house arrest.

Read: Former IoK chief ministers Mufti, Abdullah placed under house arrest; curfew-like restrictions imposed

"While there has been no word from the government on the plan of action, speculation has been rife," the Indian publication added.

The cabinet meeting was held amidst a flurry of activity in the disputed region. The clampdown imposed late Sunday night has left millions stranded in their homes as authorities also suspended some internet services and deployed thousands of fresh troops around the increasingly tense region.

According to India Today, Indian opposition leaders also met in the parliament on Monday morning to discuss the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Opposition leader in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad met with various party leaders in his office and discussed the security situation.

The two leaders place under house arrest — Abdullah and Mufti — had earlier warned the Centre against abrogation of Article 35A and Article 370, which gives special status to Kashmiris.

National Conference president Farooq Abdullah, reading out a resolution adopted at a meeting of regional parties, said they have decided to send delegations to meet the president, the prime minister and leaders of various political parties to apprise them of the consequences of any attempt to abrogate Article 370 and Article 35A of the constitution or carry out delimitation of constituencies or trifurcating the state, reported India Today.

The ruling BJP in India has consistently advocated an end to occupied Kashmir’s special constitutional status, which prevents outsiders from buying property there, arguing that such laws have hindered its 'integration' with the rest of India.

On Sunday, The Hindu reported that additional security troops had been placed in civilian installations and police stations and were put on “standby mode.”

The Indian government has admitted that 10,000 extra troops were sent to IoK a week ago. Media reports on Friday said a further 25,000 had been ordered there.

Kashmir politicians had long raised fears that the troops are sign that the Hindu nationalist government could carry out a threat to scrap occupied Kashmir's special status under the constitution.

Late on Sunday night, the Indian government imposed curfew-like restrictions in the restive region while India sent in tens of thousands of additional troops.

Communications were cut, with private mobile networks, internet services and telephone landlines cut, an AFP reporter said.

"There shall be no movement of public. All educational institutions shall also remain closed. There will be a complete bar on holding any kind of public meetings or rallies during the period of operation of this order. Identity cards of essential services officials will be treated as movement passes wherever required," read an Indian government order, but added: "there is no curfew in place". </s> ISLAMABAD — Pakistan's prime minister pledged on Thursday his country would release a captured Indian jetfighter pilot the following day, a move that could help defuse the most-serious confrontation in two decades between the nuclear-armed neighbors over the disputed region of Kashmir.

Prime Minister Imran Khan made the announcement in an address to both houses of Parliament, saying he tried to reach his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi on Wednesday with a message that he wants to de-escalate tension.

There was no immediate reaction from India, though Modi earlier in the day warned that "India's enemies are conspiring to create instability in the country through terror attacks."

"We are releasing the Indian pilot as a goodwill gesture tomorrow," Khan told lawmakers. He did not say whether the release was conditional.

The Pakistani premier also said that he had feared Wednesday night that India might launch a missile attack, but the situation was later defused. He did not elaborate.

World powers have called on the nations to de-escalate the tensions gripping the contested region since a Feb. 14 suicide bombing killed over 40 Indian paramilitary troops in Kashmir in territory it controls. India responded with a pre-dawn airstrike on Tuesday inside Pakistan, the first such raid since the two nations' 1971 war over territory that later became Bangladesh.

The situation then escalated further with Wednesday's aerial skirmish, which saw Pakistan say it shot down two Indian aircraft, one of which crashed in Pakistan-held part of Kashmir and the other in India-controlled Kashmir. Pakistan later aired a video of a man it identified as the Indian pilot.

India acknowledged one of its MiG-21s, a Soviet-era fighter jet, was "lost" in skirmishes with Pakistan. India's Ministry of External Affairs said late Wednesday that it "strongly objected to Pakistan's vulgar display of an injured personnel of the Indian Air Force," and that it expects his immediate and safe return.

India also said it shot down a Pakistani warplane, something Islamabad denied.

Kashmir has been divided but claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan since almost immediately after the two countries' creation in 1947. They have fought three wars against each other, two directly dealing with the disputed region.

Both Indian and Pakistani officials reported small-arms fire and shelling along the Kashmir region into Thursday morning. There were no reported casualties.

Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar, India, Ashok Sharma and Emily Schmall in New Delhi, Roshan Mughal in Muzafarabad, Pakistan, Adam Schreck in Hanoi, Vietnam, and Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report. </s> Pakistan Prime Minster Imran Khan told a joint session of Parliament that IAF's captured pilot Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman will be released on Friday as a gesture of peace.

"In our desire for peace, I announce that tomorrow, and as a first step to open negotiations, Pakistan will be releasing the Indian Air Force officer in our custody," PM Khan said.

The gesture is greeted with near unanimous support in the parliament.

Addressing a joint session of the National Assembly, Khan said the India-Pakistan situation should not "get out of hand" otherwise "Pakistan will have to retaliate," the Dawn reported.

"Countries are ruined because of miscalculation," said Khan. Alleging "war hysteria" in India, he said: "I'm afraid there might be a miscalculation.

"War is not a solution. If India takes any action, we will have to retaliate."

The joint session of Parliament was called to discuss the rising tensions with India.

"The only purpose of our strike (on India on Wednesday) was to demonstrate our capability and will," said the Prime Minister. "We did not want to inflict any casualty on India as we wanted to act in a responsible manner."

He said he tried to call Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the telephone on Wednesday because "escalation is not in our interests nor in India's".

The surprise announcement came barely an hour after Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Prime Minister Khan is ready to talk to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to de-escalate Indo-Pak tensions.

The announcement was greeted by thumping of desks by Pakistani lawmakers.

Indian and Pakistani air force engaged in "aerial engagement" on Wednesday, a day after Indian fighter jets bombed a Jaish-e-Mohammad training camp in Balakot.

On Wednesday morning, Pakistani jets entered Indian airspace in the Jammu sector, and Indian Air Force fighter jets chased them. Abhinandan Varthaman's MiG21 Bison jet crossed into Pakistani airspace while chasing away a Pakistan Air Force jet and was shot down.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan vows to fight India's unilateral decision to revoke Indian-administered Kashmir's autonomy, including in the United Nations General Assembly and Security Council. Mr. Khan stated this move is a breach of international law, adding he feared the possibility of ethnic cleansing in the Muslim-majority region.