First official death in Kashmir protests

A man has died in Indian Kashmir nearly a month after he was injured in a protest, the first such death that authorities have confirmed since India revoked the disputed region’s special autonomy last month.

News of the death came as Pakistan warned that its old rival India was sowing the seeds of war with its action in the divided Himalayan region.

Muslim-majority Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. Both countries rule parts of Kashmir while claiming it in full.

Indian and Pakistan have fought two wars over the region and their forces regularly trade fire across a 740-km old ceasefire line, known as the Line of Control, the de-facto border.

Meanwhile, Srinagar mayor Junaid Azim Mattu was on Tuesday put back under house arrest upon his return from New Delhi, where he had gone for medical treatment, reports said.

In an interview with NDTV, Mattu had criticised the on-going clampdown on Kashmir and the detention of its political leaders. He claimed that while there may not be any bodies littering its streets, assuming that the region has returned to normal would be ‘highly unrealistic’.

Mattu, who is also the Jammu and Kashmir People’s Conference spokesperson, was particularly scathing in his condemnation of the centre’s decision to place mainstream politicians in Kashmir under arrest as a ‘precautionary’ measure.

‘Over the years, political activists in Kashmir have braved threats and violence by terrorist elements to survive in the mainstream. But today, they are hunted and hounded,’ he said.

JKPCC chief Sajjad Lone is among those placed under arrest in Kashmir, besides National Conference leader Omar Abdullah and Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti.

The ruling BJP has justified the clampdown on Jammu and Kashmir, saying that such a step was ‘essential’ to prevent terrorists from joining forces against the administration. ‘How do we cut off communications between terrorists and their masters on the one hand, but keep the Internet open for other people? I would be delighted to know,’ external affairs minister S Jaishankar had said in an interview with Politico recently.

Asrar Ahmed Khan, 18, a resident of the region’s main city of Srinagar, died on Tuesday night, succumbing to wounds he suffered on August 6, officials said.

‘He was reportedly injured with a blunt object in a law and order situation where a violent crowd was indulging in stone pelting,’ Jammu and Kashmir director general of police Dilbag Singh said.

Khan had been in intensive care in a Srinagar hospital, said another government official.

Singh said some protesters had said Khan had been hit by a tear gas canister, though authorities suspected he may have been hit by a stone thrown by protesters.

Singh said the incident was being investigated.

There have been at least two deaths during protests reported earlier by media but authorities denied the reports.

The government flooded the Kashmir valley with troops, introduced movement restrictions and cut off most communication as prime minister Narendra Modi announced the withdrawal of special rights for Kashmir on August 5.

But the change of Kashmir’s status also angered Pakistan, which has been trying to draw global attention to the plight of the region.

‘The situation in Kashmir has become a big danger in the region ... the Indian action in Kashmir is sowing seeds of war,’ Pakistani military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor told a news conference in Islamabad.

Pakistan has sought the support of the United States, former colonial power Britain and others to press India over Kashmir but India has ruled out any outside involvement in the issue.

India has battled separatist militants in its part of Kashmir since the late 1980s, accusing Muslim Pakistan of supporting the insurgents.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net