UPDATE - Several politicians under house arrest as Kashmir marks 5 years of special status removal

UPDATES WITH STATEMENT BY INDIAN PREMIER MODI

By Nusrat Sidiq

SRINAGAR, Jammu and Kashmir (AA) - Authorities in Jammu and Kashmir on Monday heightened security and temporarily suspended Hindu pilgrimage as the region marks its fifth anniversary since the special status of the region was scrapped.

Several politicians said they have been placed under house arrest.

Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said Aug. 5, 2019 “will go down in history not just as a dark day” for Jammu and Kashmir but a “blot on Indian democracy.”

New Delhi on Aug. 5, 2019, removed the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Articles 370 and 35A. It also downgraded and divided the disputed region into two federally-administered Union Territories (UT).

Since then, the UT of Jammu and Kashmir, and the UT of Ladakh have been separately administered.

“This is what passes for democracy and free speech in Jammu and Kashmir. A handful of BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party) ‘leaders’ are encouraged to celebrate today while those who would have registered their protest against what was done to Jammu and Kashmir are locked up in homes across the valley,” said Omar Abdullah, the former chief minister representing National Conference.

Mufti said New Delhi had “disempowered, dismembered and robbed” Jammu and Kashmir of “everything special and sacrosanct to us” on Aug. 5.

“Since then, the state has been threatened into silence which is touted as ‘peace and normalcy’ to the rest of the country. Five years on the siege continues but so does the unyielding defiance and resistance. We Kashmiris refuse to be erased and unpeopled,” she said on X.

Regarding the security situation, Mufti’s daughter Iltija said: “The arrogance is such that (a) police officer from a local police station has locked us up inside our own house and taken the keys away. Cops or new-age jailers? You decide.”

National Conference said the government had “once again unjustly placed our leaders under house arrest, effectively isolating” its party headquarters Nawa-e-Subha in the capital Srinagar.

Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Indian National Congress party called Aug. 5 “a black day” when the statehood of Jammu and Kashmir was “snatched” by the BJP.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday described the scrapping of limited autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir region as a watershed moment in the nation’s history, starting a new era of progress and prosperity in Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

He said in a post on X: “I assure the people of Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh that our government will keep working for them and fulfil their aspirations in the coming times.”