PARIS: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trumpare set to meet at the G7 Summit in France on Monday, where Trump willreportedly press the Indian premier to lift a communications blackout inoccupied Kashmir and show “utmost restraint”.
On August 5, Modi´s Hindu-nationalist government revoked the autonomy ofthe Muslim-majority territory where tens of thousands of people have beenmartyred in an uprising against Indian occupation since 1989.
New Delhi sent reinforcements to the estimated half a million troopsalready stationed in occupied Kashmir, cut phone lines and the internet,placed severe restrictions on movement and arrested thousands, according tomultiple sources.
The turning of the disputed valley of seven million people into a fortressof barricades and barbed wire has not prevented protests and clashes withsecurity forces taking place however.
India says no civilian has died from police action since August 5.
But residents have said at least three people have been martyred, includinga young mother who choked after police fired tear-gas canisters into herhome.
Multiple hospital sources have told AFP at least 100 people had been hurtduring the lockdown, some with firearm injuries.
Authorities say they have been easing restrictions gradually but adelegation led by key opposition figure Rahul Gandhi was turned away atSrinagar airport on Saturday after flying in from New Delhi to assess thesituation.
“It´s been 20 days since the people of Jammu & Kashmir had their freedomand civil liberties curtailed. Leaders of the Opposition and the Press gota taste of the draconian administration and brute force unleashed on thepeople when we tried to visit Srinagar yesterday,” Gandhi tweeted on Sunday.
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Regional police chief Dilbagh Singh told AFP that Gandhi was turned backbecause in a situation “getting to normalcy” they wanted to avoid any“controversial statement”.
Trump talks
News reports have suggested there is unease in Washington at the Kashmircrisis, and that, at their talks later Monday on the sidelines of the G7summit in Biarritz, Trump would press Modi on easing regional tensions andaddressing human rights.
“India´s decision to rescind Article 370 in Kashmir is an internaldecision, but certainly with regional implications,” the Indian Expressquoted a US official as saying.
Trump “is likely to stress the need for dialogue among all sides of theconflict and his hope that India will lift the communications and movementrestrictions in Kashmir and exercise utmost restraint in dealing withpotential protests,” the official said.
India has insisted occupied Kashmir is purely an internal matter and thatit does not want outside mediation, something the US president has offered.
“Any discussion on Kashmir, if at all warranted, will only be with Pakistanand only bilaterally,” Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar was quotedas saying on Friday. -APP/AFP
