India announces easing of brutal curfew over Kashmir
Officials in the disputed Indian-controlled Kashmir region have started restoring landline phone lines since imposing a brutal curfew and news blackout on the majority-Muslim territory in early August.
Administrator Shahid Choudhary announced on Friday that restrictions are being lifted in most areas and government offices will open on Saturday for service delivery while Indian police and military forces deployed to the restive Himalayan region remained on high alert as hundreds of residents took to the streets of main city of Srinagar following Friday prayers to take part in anti-India protest rallies.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has blasted what he described as Indian government’s "fascist tactics" in Kashmir, vowing that New Delhi’s moves to suppress the struggle of Kashmiri people for freedom will "fail miserably."
In a series of Twitter posts on Friday amid escalating tensions between the two nuclear-powered neighbors after New Delhi decided to revoke Article 370 of its Constitution -- granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir -- Khan further warned the Indian government that "no force can stop" a nation from achieving its goal for liberty when popular resistance brings about unity.
"The fascist, Hindu supremacist (Narendra) Modi government should know that while armies, militants and terrorists can be defeated by superior forces; history tells us that when a nation unites in a freedom struggle and does not fear death, no force can stop it from achieving its goal,” Khan wrote as quoted in a report by India-based Indo-Asian news service (IANS).
India’s decision to ease its oppressive restrictions in Kashmir as well as the harsh statements by the Pakistani prime minister coincided by closed-door “consultations” of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on the Kashmir unrest for the first time in decades amid reports of Russian support for New Delhi’s position on the issue and the Chinese siding with Islamabad.
SS
