The Wall Street Journal - 16.08.2019

A16| Friday, August 16, 2019 ***** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

The numbers were smaller

than past spasms of unrest be-

cause of the exceptional curbs,

he said. “But sooner or later, it

will get bad, very bad,” said

the doctor, adding: “We are

preparing for the worst.”

The hospital has stocked it-

self for at least three months

of volatility, he said. The oph-

thalmology department has

doubled the staff members on

duty in every shift. Among the

injured this week was 6-year-

hurled by a group of young men

who had defied the clampdown,

one officer said. Security forces

responded with sling-shots and

guns that fire pellets, or bird-

shot, that can rip through flesh

and rupture eyeballs.

Small-scale stone-pelting

has occurred many times, secu-

rity forces and residents said.

A doctor at Srinagar’s Shri

Maharaja Hari Singh Hospital

said he had treated 30 people

for eye injuries since Aug. 5.

tional privilege and putting

New Delhi in charge of its af-

fairs, Mr. Modi has paved the

way for nonresidents to buy

land in the region, which was

long prohibited, and subordi-

nate its current inhabitants.

They said they feared it was a

ploy by Mr. Modi and his party,

which has roots in Hindu na-

tionalism, to change the demo-

graphic make-up of this pre-

dominately Muslim area.

The government denies these

accusations, saying the steps

would end a decadeslong cycle

of corruption and terrorism

that has stalled development.

This week in older neigh-

borhoods of Srinagar, gun-

wielding paramilitary forces

were positioned every 100

yards, sometimes in large clus-

ters, accompanied by police.

The environment was tense,

with rows of shops shuttered.

Security personnel in the

area said they had orders to

make sure no one left their

homes unless it was a medical

emergency. They stopped cars

passing by, seeking proof such

as a visibly unwell person or

hospital paperwork.

Rocks came flying toward

them Wednesday afternoon,

BYNIHARIKAMANDHANA

WORLD NEWS

Kashmir Seethes as India Clamps Down

Curbs thwart unrest in

Muslim-majority

region but residents

say ‘volcano will erupt’

Clockwise from top, women walking past concertina wire under curfew in Srinagar; a communications blackout has forced other people to wait days to make international

calls. Above, Indian troops marked the nation’s Independence Day on Thursday. Below, Muneefa Nazir was injured by a projectile fired by Indian security forces, her uncle says.

VIVEK SINGH FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (4)

WORLDWATCH

MEXICO

Central Bank Makes

ARareRateCut

The Bank of Mexico lowered

interest rates for the first time in

more than five years, citing slow-

ing growth, lower inflation and a

decline in debt yields in Mexico

and abroad.

The central bank said a major-

ity of board members voted to

cut the overnight interest-rate

target by a quarter percentage

point to 8%. One member voted

to keep it at 8.25%.

The bank noted the economy

continued to stagnate in the sec-

ond quarter, creating greater-than-

expected slack. Gross domestic

product contracted 0.2% in the

first quarter and edged up 0.1% in

the second, prompting economists

to cut their growth estimates for

all of 2019 to less than 1%.

The bank last cut the rate in

June 2014, embarking on a tight-

ening cycle in December 2015,

and gradually raising the rate to

8.25% by December 2018 in re-

sponse to rising inflation.

—Anthony Harrup

RUSSIA

Pilot Lands Jet After

Birds Strike Engines

A Russian pilot was hailed as a

hero Thursday for safely landing

his passenger jet in a cornfield af-

ter it collided with a flock of gulls

seconds after takeoff, causing both

engines to malfunction. While doz-

ens of people on the plane sought

medical assistance, only one was

hospitalized.

The quick thinking of the cap-

tain, 41-year-old Damir Yusupov,

drew comparisons to the 2009

“Miracle on the Hudson,” when

Capt. Chesley Sullenberger safely

ditched his plane in New York’s

Hudson River after a bird strike

disabled its engines.

The Ural Airlines A321 was car-

rying 226 passengers and a crew

of seven as it took off Thursday

from Moscow’s Zhukovsky Airport

en route to Simferopol in Crimea.

—Associated Press

ZIMBABWE

Police Patrol Capital

OnEveofProtests

In a show of force to discour-

age antigovernment protests,

Zimbabwe police with water

cannons patrolled the capital’s

streets and warned residents

“you will rot in jail” if they par-

ticipate in the demonstrations

planned for Friday.

Six antigovernment activists

have been abducted and tor-

tured this week ahead of the

protests, as tensions rise over

Zimbabwe’s deteriorating econ-

omy, human-rights groups say.

President Emmerson Mnan-

gagwa urged the opposition to

engage in dialogue, but the gov-

ernment is pushing for parlia-

ment to adopt new security leg-

islation criticized as repressive.

—Associated Press

who works in Saudi Arabia,

since the crackdown began.

She elbowed her way through

the crowds to get his number

recorded in a register. There

were 200 people ahead of her

waiting to make calls, she was

told. Her turn would come the

following day.

Each caller got only a min-

ute or two to speak, sur-

rounded by others listening in,

with no second chance if the

phone wasn’t answered. Ruhi

Zahoor said even that small

window would be a blessing if

she could check in with her 21-

year-old son, who was study-

ing in Russia. She hadn’t been

able to transfer money to him

for basic expenses.

Residents say they are pre-

paring for a long period of tur-

moil and hardship. Abdul

Hamid Kachroo, 42, hasn’t

been able to open his mutton

shop for 10 days, the most lu-

crative time of the year as

Muslims celebrated Eid al-Adha

on Monday. His stock isn’t even

going at half-price now in in-

formal sales from his home or

the warehouse, he said.

“India’s fraud won’t go un-

answered,” he said. “The vol-

cano will erupt.”

old Muneefa Nazir, whose

right eye was damaged by a

sling-shot injury when para-

military forces targeted her

uncle’s motorbike as the two

traveled on it under tight re-

strictions, according to her

uncle, Farooq Wani.

Men with pellet-gun injuries

said coming to the hospital

was fraught with risks of being

immediately imprisoned under

the state’s strict security laws.

They said they traveled be-

tween midnight and sunrise

when checks weren’t as tight.

Journeys that normally would

take an hour stretched for up

to five hours, they said, as

they sought to avoid arterial

roads and were blocked at un-

avoidable checkpoints.

The communications shut-

down has crippled regular life,

preventing businesses from us-

ing e-banking services to pay

suppliers and thwarting inqui-

ries after aged parents and re-

sponses to medical emergen-

cies. On a recent day, hundreds

of people thronged a local gov-

ernment office where two

phone lines were available for

international calls.

Nusrat Rasool, 26, said she

hadn’t spoken to her husband,

cathedral in late 1996 and one

oftheboysinacathedralcor-

ridor in early 1997, not long

after he became archbishop of

Melbourne. The former Vati-

can finance chief was sen-

tenced to six years in prison

this year.

The judges’ findings will be

released Aug. 21 in proceed-

ings that will also be broad-

cast on the internet, an indi-

cation of the levels of public

interest in the case both here

and abroad. Cardinal Pell

maintains he is innocent.

The main argument of the

cardinal’s appeal was that the

guilty verdicts were unrea-

sonable based on the evi-

dence. The cardinal’s lawyers

also argued that mistakes

were made that prevented

him from getting a fair

trial. The prosecution coun-

tered that the cardinal’s ac-

cuser was a compelling and

believable witness, who gave

testimony a jury could accept.

MELBOURNE, Australia—

Cardinal George Pell, the

most senior Vatican official

ever to be jailed for child sex-

ual abuse, could be freed next

week if he wins his appeal

against the conviction.

A panel of Australian

judges will rule on whether

to quash the cardinal’s con-

viction for assaulting two

young choir boys inside the

cathedral that was the center

of his diocese in the late

1990s.

Three judges in the Su-

preme Court of Victoria, the

southern state where the 78-

year-old cleric first served as

a priest and later was arch-

bishop of Melbourne, have

been deliberating for months

and held an appeal hearing in

June.

If the cardinal loses his ap-

peal, he could challenge that

decision in the top court, the

High Court of Australia. Con-

versely, even if he wins, his

freedom could be temporary

given expectations the prose-

cution would appeal that out-

come to the High Court.

In December, a jury con-

victed Cardinal Pell on five

counts of sexually abusing

two choir boys inside a

priests’ room in a Melbourne

BYROBBM.STEWART

Australia Panel to Rule

On Appeal by Cardinal

George Pell was

convicted last year

of sexually abusing

two choirboys.

Police guard a field near Moscow where a pilot landed his plane after

both engines were damaged in a bird strike.

YURI KADOBNOV/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

SRINAGAR, India—As In-
dian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi promised peace and
prosperity for the disputed re-
gion of Kashmir in an Inde-
pendence Day speech, Indian
paramilitary forces blocked off
streets in its largest city,
which has been under a nearly
total communications blackout
for more than 10 days.
The curbs were aimed at
preventing large-scale protests
against the Modi government’s
decision last week to end the
region’s longstanding special
status, which gave it a degree
of autonomy. In his address in
New Delhi on Thursday, Mr.
Modi celebrated what he de-
scribed as Kashmir’s complete
integration into India decades
after independence from Brit-
ish rule in 1947.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is
home to a separatist movement
and was at the center of three
wars between India and Paki-
stan. Indian armed forces have
long maintained a heavy pres-
ence in the territory and fought
against a violent insurgency in
the 1990s. Militants regularly
clash with security personnel.
In dozens of interviews this
week, many Kashmiris ex-
pressed rage and resentment
against Mr. Modi and said
those sentiments were grow-
ing as curbs continued. To
them, the restrictions and
massive deployment of secu-
rity forces serve as a template
for how New Delhi plans to
govern Kashmir under the new
arrangement.
“They want Kashmir, not
Kashmiris,” said Manzoor Ah-
mad Bhat, a 65-year-old re-
tired civil servant who dis-
missed Mr. Modi’s
development promises as a
charade. “They have silenced
our voices, put us in a cage.”
Since Aug. 5, the govern-
ment has turned off the inter-
net and mobile-phone connec-
tivity and blocked telephone
land lines across Kashmir. Lo-
cal elected leaders and dozens
of other prominent figures
have been placed under deten-
tion. Many parts of Srinagar
are cut off with large coils of
wires and armored vehicles.
Although restrictions on
movement were eased on
some days in parts of the city,
they have disrupted busi-
nesses and largely confined
people to their homes.
Many Kashmiris predicted
protests would break out when
the government eases curbs,
leading to bloodshed and an
uptick in militant attacks. In
2016, dozens of people died in
clashes between stone-throw-
ing protesters and security
forces after a popular militant
was killed.
Many locals said that by
scrapping Kashmir’s constitu-

SEOUL—North Korea fired
two short-range projectiles off
the country’s east coast on
Friday, Seoul officials said, ex-
tending a string of weapons
tests that come amid stalled
nuclear talks with Washington
and a continuing U.S.-South
Korea military exercise that
has angered Pyongyang.
The test is Pyongyang’s sixth
since July 25. The unidentified
projectiles were launched from
the North’s Kangwon province
before splashing into the wa-
ters between South Korea and
Japan, Seoul’s military said.
The first projectile was fired
at 8:01 a.m. local time, with the
second coming 15 minutes later,
soaring about 18 miles high and
over a 143-mile distance, South
Korea’s military said. Seoul has
generally classified the North’s
other recent launches as short-
range ballistic missiles.
In Washington, a senior ad-
ministration official said the
U.S. was aware of the reports
and would continue to monitor
the situation. President Trump,
in a Saturday tweet, said North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un sig-
naled in a letter that the tests
would cease once the U.S.-South
Korea military exercises ended.

BYTIMOTHYW.MARTIN

North Korea

Again Fires

Projectiles