India abolishes Kashmir′s autonomous status

International Desk: The Indian government on Monday revoked Kashmir's special status, stripping the significant autonomy it has enjoyed for seven decades in a move expected to further inflame tensions in the Muslim-majority region and infuriate rival Pakistan.

India's prime minister Narendra Modi Hindu-nationalist party rushed through a presidential decree to scrap the disputed region's special status in the constitution, and also moved a bill proposing the territory be divided into two regions directly ruled by New Delhi.

The government imposed a security lockdown and cut all telecommunications in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir in the early hours of Monday after deploying tens of thousands of troops in the past week, claiming there was a terror threat.

Home minister Amit Shah, a close ally of Modi, told parliament the president had issued a decree abolishing Article 370 of the constitution, which gives special autonomy to the Himalayan region.

The decree said the measure came into force "at once".

Kashmir has been divided between Indian and Pakistan since their independence in 1947. For three decades the Indian-administered part of the territory has been in the grip of an insurgency that has left tens of thousands dead.

Armed Kashmiri rebels and many residents have fought for the region's independence or to join neighbour Pakistan.

There were already growing fears among Kashmiris that the special status would be ditched after Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) obtained a large parliamentary majority in recent elections.

His party had vowed to fulfil a long-held promise to scrap the laws, and many fear New Delhi wants to change the region's demographics by allowing non-Kashmiris, mostly Hindus, to buy land locally.

The move is set to exacerbate the already bloody rebellion in Kashmir and deepen the long-running amorosity with nuclear rival Pakistan which has fought two out of three wars with India over the territory.

Agencies

risingbd/Dhaka/Aug 5, 2019/Nasim