Occupied Kashmir: Curfew enters 21st day

Srinagar: Indian authorities  continued to impose strict curfew and other restrictions across  Occupied  Kashmir  on the 21st consecutive day on Sunday, according to Kashmir Media Service.

The  curfew was imposed to prevent people from holding demonstrations against Indian occupation and its move to end  special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

The KMS reported that due to severe blockade, people are facing acute shortage of essential commodities including baby food and life-saving medicines and the valley represents a humanitarian crisis.

 The Indian authorities have been maintaining a strict curfew in the Kashmir valley since 5th August when Narendra Modi government announced scraping of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir. 

Hundreds of thousands of Indian troops and police personnel deployed in every nook and corner of the territory are not allowing people to come out of their homes. The authorities also continue to impose information blockade as TV channels and internet links are snapped and restrictions on media remain in place since 5th August. Local newspapers could not update their online editions while majority of them could also not be printed due to curfew and other restrictions during all this period.

The authorities have put almost all Hurriyat leaders, including Syed Ali Gilani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, under house arrest or in jails. Over 10,000 Kashmiris including hundreds of political leaders and workers have been detained. The jails and police stations have run out of space and many detainees have been lodged in makeshift detention centres. A hotel in Srinagar being used as a makeshift detention centre has been declared a sub-jail. Around 50 pro-India political leaders are detained in the hotel.