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> The Indian government has announced the decision to revoke the special status of Kashmir. Amit Shah, the home minister, made the announcement revoking Article 370 of the Constitution in the upper house of Parliament on Monday morning despite strong opposition from opposition politicians.

Article 370 provides special status to the mainly Muslim population of Jammu and Kashmir. The move to rescind Kashmir's special status was a campaign promise of India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party. For many years, Kashmir has been governed differently than other parts of India, and the government’s decision is widely seen as a blow to Kashmir’s autonomy.

Ahead of the announcement, the Indian government sent at least 8,000 additional paramilitary troops to Jammu and Kashmir. Additional troops are being carried by C-17 transport planes of the Indian Air Force to Srinagar, which is the largest city in the state, the NDTV broadcaster reported. The troops are set to ensure increased security and will add to the over 35,000 soldiers that were sent there over the last week.

The Indian authorities also evacuated tourists, closed schools and cut off internet service. New Delhi has also put its armed forces on high alert to prevent attempts by secessionist groups to foment trouble in Kashmir. Regional party leaders have also been taking into custody. Security has been increased across India, particularly at key installations, including the Metro Rail in the capital New Delhi.

​Reports indicate that more troops could be airlifted to reinforce security in Kashmir. New Delhi deployed additional troops in the region last week following attempts by militants based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to cross over to India, intermittent firing by Pakistani forces and reports of possible terrorist strikes against the annual Hindu pilgrimage to the Cave Shrine of Amarnath. </s> India’s government revoked disputed Kashmir’s special status by presidential order on Aug. 5 as thousands of newly deployed troops descended and some internet and phone services were suspended in the restive Himalayan region where most people oppose Indian rule.

Home Minister Amit Shah announced the revocation amid an uproar in India’s two houses of parliament and while Kashmir was under a security lockdown keeping thousands of people inside their homes and unable to communicate with the outside world.

Shah’s statement 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.

The revoked law, Article 370 of the Constitution, gives Jammu and Kashmir its own constitution and decision-making rights for all matters except for defense, communications and foreign affairs. The law also forbids Indians outside the state from permanently settling, buying land, holding local government jobs and securing education scholarships.

Critics of India’s Hindu nationalist-led government see the move as a bid to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers.

According to a copy of the order, the revocation of Article 370 will “come into force at once” and will “supersede the Constitution.”

Despite the blackout on internet services, Jammu and Kashmir’s former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufi, tweeted that the government’s decision is “illegal” and “unconstitutional.”

Shah also introduced the “Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill” which, if passed, will 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.

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.

The law dates to 1927, when an order by the administration of the-then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir gave the state’s 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 neighborhoods 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.

The security deployment in recent days adds at least 10,000 soldiers and other forces in Kashmir, to what was already one of the world’s most militarized regions. India also had 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.

Indian firing along the Line of Control on Sunday wounded one woman, Pakistani police said. In Pakistani border villages, residents were moving to safer places or building and strengthening bunkers and shelters protecting them from cross-border fire.

Pakistan and India routinely blame each other for initiating border skirmishes.

Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party won reelection early this year on a platform that included promises to do away with special rights for Kashmiris under India’s constitution.

At the Srinagar airport, hundreds of Indian and foreign visitors, including some Hindu pilgrims, congregated outside the main terminal, seeking seats on departing flights. Tourists and pilgrims also took buses out of the region, with authorities busing out hundreds of Indian students from Srinagar colleges.

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. </s> 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> 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> NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to revoke special status for the disputed Kashmir region is a bold gamble to end a three-decades old armed revolt and draw the territory closer to the rest of India, the country’s media said on Tuesday.

The Hindu nationalist-led government on Monday scrapped a constitutional provision that allowed the Muslim majority state of Jammu and Kashmir to make its own laws and barred non-residents from buying property there.

“History, in one stroke,” ran a front-page headline in the Indian Express newspaper after the biggest political move in nearly 70 years in one of the world’s most militarized regions.

“Mission Kashmir Accomplished: In one swift stroke, India gets special status in state,” The Economic Times said on its front page.

Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has long advocated for an end to Kashmir’s special status, saying it hindered the region’s development and spurred young people to join the insurgency against Indian rule.

But no government has tried to change the autonomy granted to Kashmir after it acceded to India in 1947, fearing more violence in a region where tens of thousands of people have died in the insurgency and India has fought two wars with rival Pakistan, which also has claims over the region.

“BJP’s Kashmir move is bold, but has risks,” the Hindustan Times newspaper said in its editorial, adding that the government must now reach out to Kashmiris.

The government gave no prior warning that it planned to withdraw Kashmir’s special status and divide the state into two federally-administered territories.

“PARTITION of minds and a state. This time by the largest democracy on the planet, without asking J&K”,” The Telegraph newspaper said on its front page.

The measure is likely to provoke a backlash in the region, where hours before Monday’s decision Indian authorities arrested local leaders and cut off mobile, internet and cable television networks in a bid to prevent protests.

“The government has a responsibility to ensure security in Kashmir, but that means respecting the human rights of everyone, including protesters,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“The government got off to a bad start by detaining political leaders, banning public meetings, and shutting down the internet,” she added.

Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a New Delhi-based political analyst, said the government had undermined India’s democratic principles by forcing change in Kashmir.

“There are times in the history of a republic when it reduces itself to a jackboot. Nothing more and nothing less. We are witnessing that moment in Kashmir,” Mehta wrote in an opinion piece for the Indian Express. </s> • India on Monday revoked part of its constitution that established the quasi-independence of Kashmir, a disputed region between India and Pakistan.
• The articles had allowed Kashmir to make its own laws, and banned non-Kashmiris from moving there or working for its government.
• The state will now be directly under the control of India’s federal government in New Delhi.
• Over the weekend Indian authorities sent thousands of troops into the already heavily-militarized region, and told tourists to get out.
• India also shut down the internet and put local political figures under house arrest.

India has shut off the internet, placed politicians under house arrest, and ordered tourists to leave the disputed region of Kashmir after it annulled part of its constitution that gave the region a large degree of independence from the rest of the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on Monday revoked Articles 35a and 370 of its constitution, which gave the state of Jammu and Kashmir a “special” status that allowed it to make its own laws.

The state will now be reorganized into two territories – Jammu and Kashmir being one, and Ladakh being the other. The regions will be governed by the Indian federal authorities in New Delhi as opposed to individual state governors.

Jammu and Kashmir’s quasi-independence dates back to 1927, when the region’s administration allowed its subjects to have a separate set of rules for inheriting property.

After India and Pakistan separated in 1947, the maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir chose to become part of India, with Article 370 of the Indian Constitution preserving its “special status.” This angered Pakistan, which supported many insurgencies in the region.

Pakistan continues to claim Jammu and Kashmir as its own territory.

The constitutional provision also blocked Indians from outside the region from living there, owning property, or getting government jobs. It also prohibits women from inheriting property if they marry someone from outside the state.

Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) argue that constitutional provisions regarding Jammu and Kashmir’s “special status” are temporary, and has long vowed to revoke them.

During general elections this May, the BJP said the “special status” was “discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of Kashmir.”

It added: “We believe that Article 35A is an obstacle in the development of the state.”

The BJP won those elections by a landslide, increasing its seats in parliament.

Jammu and Kashmir are currently split between India, Pakistan, and China. The area remains heavily contested between India and Pakistan.

Many of the region’s residents, who are mostly Muslim, hope for independence or to be ruled by Pakistan, the BBC reported. It is one of the most heavily-militarized areas in the world.

The longstanding tensions over Kashmir reignited in February after a suicide attack killed 44 Indian paramilitary police in the Indian-controlled side of the region.

Read more: Here’s what life is like on the border between India and Pakistan, one of the world’s most disputed regions

Indian Border Security Force soldiers patrol a footbridge near the Line of Control (LoC), a ceasefire line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, in August 2013.

Troops move in as tourists stream out

India has moved thousands of troops into Kashmir and placed heavy restrictions on the daily life of its 7 million resident since Friday, citing an impending terror threat.

Indian Army officials said Pakistan-based militants were planning an attack on the approximately 300,000 Hindus who were in the region for an annual pilgrimage, The Associated Press (AP) and The New York Times reported.

Thousands of tourists and students have been fleeing the region per government orders, the AP reported.

But many Kashmiris doubted the claims of an impending terror attack and wondered if there were other reasons for the sudden troop increase in the region.

The Indian army also fired along the Line of Control – which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan on Sunday – and wounded one woman, the AP reported, citing Pakistani police.

Indian authorities in the region also shut off the internet and cut landlines in many households over the weekend.

Blocking communications is a common strategy to prevent people from organizing anti-India demonstration and to stop the spreading of news that may be unsavory to the government, according to the AP.

Some people were able to bypass the internet ban, however. The Indian state-owned BSNL telcom provider sold satellite phones to journalists on the ground for 100,000 rupees ($1,419) apiece so they could continue reporting.

Indian officials also placed top regional leaders, including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, under house arrest amid the mounting tensions.

“Today marks the darkest day in Indian democracy,” Mufti tweeted shortly after India scrapped the constitutional provisions for Jammu and Kashmir’s independence.

“The manner in which they [Indian officials] want to bulldoze our special identity is illegal & makes India an occupational force,” she later said.

US President Donald Trump offered to mediate the Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India last week in a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan two weeks ago.

Khan appeared to take up Trump’s offer on Sunday after Indian troops moved into the region, warning in a tweet: “This has the potential to blow up into a regional crisis.”

Read more: Trump’s casual offer to mediate the Kashmir dispute reveals a disastrous misunderstanding of the powder-keg region

Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday said that India’s annulment of the two articles violates UN Security Council resolutions, India Today reported. </s> [NEW DELHI] The Indian government on Monday revoked Kashmir's special status, stripping the significant autonomy it has enjoyed for seven decades in a move expected to further inflame tensions in the Muslim-majority region and infuriate rival Pakistan.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist party rushed through a presidential decree to scrap the disputed region's special status in the constitution, and also moved a bill proposing the territory be divided into two regions directly ruled by New Delhi.

The government imposed a security lockdown and cut all telecommunications in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir in the early hours of Monday after deploying tens of thousands of troops in the past week, claiming there was a terror threat.

Home Minister Amit Shah, a close ally of Mr Modi, told parliament the president had issued a decree abolishing Article 370 of the constitution, which gives special autonomy to the Himalayan region.

The decree said the measure came into force "at once".

Kashmir has been divided between Indian and Pakistan since their independence in 1947. For three decades the Indian-administered part of the territory has been in the grip of an insurgency that has left tens of thousands dead.

Armed Kashmiri rebels and many residents have fought for the region's independence or to join neighbour Pakistan.

There were already growing fears among Kashmiris that the special status would be ditched after Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) obtained a large parliamentary majority in recent elections.

His party had vowed to fulfil a long-held promise to scrap the laws, and many fear New Delhi wants to change the region's demographics by allowing non-Kashmiris, mostly Hindus, to buy land locally.

The move is set to exacerbate the already bloody rebellion in Kashmir and deepen the long-running amorosity with nuclear rival Pakistan which has fought two out of three wars with India over the territory.

"There will a very strong reaction in Kashmir. It's already in a state of unrest and this will only make it worse," Wajahat Habibullah, a former senior bureaucrat in Jammu and Kashmir, told AFP.

The announcement sparked chaotic scenes in the national parliament, with opposition politicians shouting protests.

The main opposition Congress party described the decision as a "catastrophic step".

One lawmaker from the regional Kashmir-based Peoples Democratic Party tore up a copy of Indian constitution before being reportedly removed from the chambers by parliamentary marshals.

Former Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti tweeted that the latest move was the "darkest day in Indian democracy".

"Unilateral decision of GOI (government of India) to scrap Article 370 is illegal & unconstitutional which will make India an occupational force in J&K (Jammu and Kashmir)," she added.

In Pakistan, a representative of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Firdous Ashiq Awan, tweeted that his nation would continue to provide Kashmir with "moral, diplomatic and political support" until it achieves self-determination.

The unprecedented move followed days of uncertainty in the region that began on Friday when New Delhi ordered tourists and Hindu pilgrims to leave "immediately".

All phones, internet services and cable networks in the restive Himalayan region of more than seven million people were cut at midnight, and only residents issued with a curfew pass were allowed on the streets.

Article 370 of the Indian constitution gives special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It limits the power of the Indian parliament to impose laws in the state, apart from matters of defence, foreign affairs and communications.
India revokes Jammu and Kashmir's special status amidst increased regional tensions. The Indian government moved additional troops into the sensitive area before banning assemblies, closing schools, restricting tourism and announcing a plan to split the state into two union territories.