Srinagar (India), Aug 5 (EFE) since the withdrawal of the semi-autonomous status of this Muslim-majority region.
“I have been placed under house arrest along with other senior leaders of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP). This comes after a midnight crackdown in which dozens of my party members were illegally detained in police stations,” Mufti wrote, leader of the formation, on Twitter showing images of the door of his house, supposedly blocked with padlocks.
The party’s headquarters in Srinagar, the region’s main city, has also been sealed off and not even staff have been allowed to enter the premises, a party spokesman said in a statement.
This wave of repression coincides with the fourth anniversary of the withdrawal of the semi-autonomous status of Indian Kashmir, which was adopted by surprise on August 5, 2019 by the Indian BJP government, led by the current Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.
The abolition of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution, which recognized the special status of the region, was followed by a violent crackdown that included the arrest of thousands of politicians, activists and ordinary citizens to prevent protests.
Mufti was one of those detained at the time, and she spent 14 months in detention until her release in October 2020.
In parallel, the BJP today organized a series of events to celebrate this anniversary and the entry of the region, which has since been administered from New Delhi, into “an era of comprehensive development.”
Also, after four years of waiting, the Supreme Court of India this week began hearing a series of petitions challenging the abrogation of the region’s special status.
Kashmir has been at the center of hostilities between India and Pakistan since 1947, a territory for which these neighboring countries have so far fought two wars.
Since 1989, the region has been submerged in an armed revolt against the rule of New Delhi, a conflict in which tens of thousands of people have died, while India accuses Pakistan of being complicit in the insurgency, and Islamabad denies it. EFE
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