Indian-held Kashmir shuts to protest Modi's visit

Large parts of Indian-controlled Kashmir have been shut down ahead of a visit by India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is scheduled to inaugurate a hydroelectric power plant in the volatile region on Saturday.

Reports said shops, businesses and schools were shut as thousands of Indian troops and police officers were deployed across the main city of Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, sealing off roads with razor wire and iron barricades due to potential anti-India protests.

The 330-megawatt power plant project on the Kishanganga River in Indian-held Kashmir’s Bandipora District started in 2009 and is one of the projects that India has fast-tracked in the volatile state.

The move has already prompted protest from neighboring Pakistan saying that the project is in breach of a 1960 treaty that regulates the use of waters in the shared rivers and will disrupt water supplies to the country.

“Pakistan is seriously concerned about the inauguration [of the Kishanganga plant],” a statement issued by the Pakistani Foreign Office said. “Pakistan believes that the inauguration of the project without the resolution of the dispute is tantamount to violation of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT).”

The Kishanganga project was delayed for several years as Pakistan dragged India to the International Court of Arbitration, which ruled in India's favor in 2013.

Islamabad argues that the hydropower project is a “run-of-the-river” plan and does not contravene the treaty as the scheme uses the river’s flow and elevation to generate electricity rather than large reservoirs.

Modi’s visit came a day after at least nine people were killed on both sides during a heavy mortar fire and gun battle between Indian and Pakistani forces.

India ordered security forces last week to halt their operations against militants in the disputed Kashmir territory during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.

SS