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Hundreds chant anti-India slogans in seething Kashmir on eve of Eid

11 August 2019 20:57 (UTC +04:00)

Hundreds of people protested in Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar on Sunday against India’s decision to curb its autonomy, despite new restrictions on travel and a seventh straight day of communications blackout, APA reports citing Reuters.

Restrictions that had been temporarily eased on Friday and Saturday – allowing some bakeries, pharmacies and fruit shops to open ahead of the Muslim holy festival of Eid al-Adha – were reinstated in major parts of the city on Sunday afternoon.

Police vans drove around some areas ordering people to shut shop and go home, and most streets were silent by evening, as thousands of troops kept vigil, witnesses said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government locked down the Muslim-majority region last Sunday, cutting off communications, detaining more than 300 political leaders and activists, and putting a “virtual curfew” into force with numerous roadblocks stopping movement.

Seeking to tighten its grip on the region also claimed by neighboring Pakistan, India announced last Monday that it was scrapping Jammu and Kashmir’s right to frame its own laws and allowed non-residents to buy property there.

Angry Kashmiris gathered at a mosque in Srinagar’s Soura neighborhood after afternoon prayers on Sunday and began shouting anti-India slogans, according to two Reuters witnesses.

Protesters carried a large banner carrying the words “Save Article 35A,” referring to the constitutional provision that India revoked last week. A swarm of women and girls in colorful headscarves followed the marching men.

“What do we want? Freedom! When do we want it? Now!” the crowd shouted, marching around the neighborhood.

Some of them held up paper banners, including one that read: “Modi, Kashmir is not your father’s property.”

India’s Home Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The demonstration in Soura followed a much larger protest in the same area on Friday, when pro-independence youths marched before being repelled by tear gas and pellets.

Leaders in Kashmir had warned of a backlash against the stripping of autonomy in a territory where militants have been fighting Indian rule for nearly 30 years, resulting in the deaths of more than 50,000 people.