Kashmir marks anniversary of autonomy abrogation, politicians under arrest

Authorities in India-administered Kashmir have heightened security and temporarily suspended Hindu pilgrimage as the region marks its fifth anniversary since the special status of the region was scrapped.

Several politicians said on Monday that they have been placed under house arrest.

Former Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti said August 5, 2019 “will go down in history not just as a dark day” for Jammu and Kashmir but a “blot on Indian democracy.”

New Delhi on August 5, 2019, removed the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Articles 370 and 35A.

It also downgraded and divided the disputed region into two federally administered Union Territories (UT).

Since then, the UT of administered Jammu and Kashmir, and the UT of Ladakh have been separately administered.

Mufti said New Delhi had “disempowered, dismembered and robbed” Jammu and Kashmir of “everything special and sacrosanct to us” on August 5.

“Since then, the state has been threatened into silence which is touted as ‘peace and normalcy’ to the rest of the country,” she said on X.

"Five years on the siege continues but so does the unyielding defiance and resistance. We Kashmiris refuse to be erased and unpeopled."

Omar Abdullah, the former chief minister representing National Conference, also took to social media to call out the celebrations.

"A handful of BJP (Bhartiya Janta Party) ‘leaders’ are encouraged to celebrate today while those who would have registered their protest against what was done to Jammu and Kashmir are locked up in homes across the valley," Abdullah said.

Protests in Pakistan-administered Kashmir

In addition, hundreds of angry people took to the streets in Pakistan-administered Kashmir Monday to mark the fifth anniversary of India's decision to strip the disputed region of its semi-autonomy and take direct control of it.

The decision which Islamabad insists was unilateral and violated United Nations resolutions has tested the already strained ties between the two countries.

Protesters in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, burned an effigy of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indian national flags.

Another protest of about 200 people was led by Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar in the capital.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif addressed lawmakers in Muzaffarabad, via a video feed, saying he hoped Kashmiri people would soon get the right to self-determination to decide their future and expressed his optimism that “that day will soon come.”.