Treating their revocation of Kashmiri autonomy as a fait accompli, the
Indian government had begun to dial back the restrictions on movement
Kashmir. That didn’t last long, however, and India is now moving to reimpose all of those same restrictions.
Indian officials say this is because of a growing crisis involving
growing protests throwing stones at security forces. They accused 47
stones of having been thrown on Saturday, and 20 more on Sunday before
restrictions started being put back in place.
And restrictions, of course, mean Indian police firing pellet guns at
anybody caught out in public in Srinagar, and mass arrests of anyone
suspected of wrongdoing. Some 4,000 people have been arrested and held without charges.
The mass arrests are likely to be a long term problem in Kashmir, as
Indian law allows such detainees to be held without trial for as much as
two years. Indeed, judges are ordering many detainees to be removed
from Kashmir on the grounds that all the jails in Kashmir are already
totally full.
India Reimposes Kashmir Curbs, Citing ‘Stone-Throwing’ Threats
At least 4,000 arrested, dozens of stones believed thrown
Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.
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