“They want to create settlements slowly, like what Israel did in Palestine.” - Kashmiri's fear that the BJP's pledge to revoke the state's special status will inflame tensions
On Thursday, roads leading to polling stations in northern Kashmir were dotted with hundreds of Indian troops in riot gear.
Kashmiris are weary of the violence that might follow if the BJP is re-elected and decide to follow through on the pledge.“They might get rid of the special laws,” said Shameem Ahmad, a 42-year-old resident of South Kashmir’s Pulwama, adding: “They want to create settlements slowly, like what Israel did in Palestine.”In the run-up to the vote, authorities have poured in thousands of troops into the region in order to make sure polling go smoothly.
“Be it revoking Article 35-A or a limited war with Pakistan, the BJP’s whole election campaign revolves around Kashmir and nationalism...Kashmir is the fuel for their nationalism engine,” he said.Kashmir found itself at the centre of a stand-off between nuclear armed neighbours, India and Pakistan, in February when 19-year-old Adil Ahmad Dar carried out a suicide bombing in Pulwama killing 40 members of an Indian paramilitary force.
Two top separatist organisations, Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front have been banned, and hundreds of their activists and leaders have been jailed. According to a report by Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society , a local human rights group, 2018 was the deadliest year of the decade with 586 recorded killings, which included more than 150 civilians and over 230 rebels. Khurram Parvez, a noted human rights activists and a coordinator in the JKCCS, said that in the first three months of 2019, at least 162 people were killed in the violence, including “21 civilians, 58 fighters, and 83 members of the Indian armed forces personnel.
Abdullah, whose father Sheikh Muhammad Abdullah, signed the accord of accession with then-Indian Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru said the “state did not merge, it acceded on certain terms”.
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