- The Observer
28 11.08.19 World
department in a hospital in Srinagar
said patient numbers had drastically
reduced. “On an average day we see
over 1,000 patients, but now less than
100 manage to reach here,” the doctor
told Agence France-Presse.
Ambulance services aren’t work-
ing and people attempting to drive to
hospital have reportedly been turned
away at checkpoints. Ali managed to
get to a pharmacy to pick up medicine
for his child last week, he said, but
supplies there were worryingly low.
India’s prime minister, Narendra
Modi , said the removal of Kashmir’s
special status would bring greater
prosperity to Kashmir, and free the
state of terrorism. But the decision
is widely opposed in Kashmir, where
even prominent pro-India politicians
have been detained.
The move strips Kashmir of theautonomy it was granted in exchange
for joining the Indian union after
independence in 1947, meaning it will
lose its constitution and fl ag. Rules
that prevent outsiders from buy-
ing land in Kashmir are also being
scrapped, prompting fears that the
territory’s demography and way of
life will be altered.
According to the semi-offi cial Fars
News Agency, Ayatollah Mohammad
Ali Movahedi Kermani, an adviser to
Iran’s supreme leader and Tehran’s
Friday prayer leader, told hundreds
of worshippers that India’s actions
were “an ugly move”, AssociatedKashmiris face
growing food
shortages
Khan suggested Delhi might carry
out ethnic cleansing. He has expelled
the Indian high commissioner and
halted trade, while Pakistan’s army
chief has said forces would take any
action to “stand by” Kashmiris.
Khan has vowed to go to the United
Nations and lobby heads of states,
although the response so far has been
muted. “Ultimately, Pakistan may be
frustrated on the world stage, which
enhances the likelihood that it may
try to resort to sub-conventional
uses of force – pushing back at India
by encouraging its militant assets,”
said Michael Kugelman , a SouthPress reported. In Pakistan, many
are demanding a tough response
from prime minister Imran Khan.
Thousands of supporters of Jamaat-
e-Islami, a Pakistani Islamist party,
marched through Islamabad on
Friday, condemning Delhi’s action.
In one of the city’s biggest shopping
centres , visitors also called for action.
“[Khan] should come up with an effec-
tive policy to show to the world what
India is doing ,” said Anam Rana, a
student at Quaid -e-Azam University.
“We should talk of peace with India
but we can’t clap with one hand ,” said
Awais Siddiqui, a telecoms engineer.Continued from page 27Ever since thousands of troops placed
Indian-administered Kashmir in
lockdown , Sohail Nasti has been sit-
ting in the living room of his north
London home frantically trying to
communicate with his family.
With all mobile phone networks,
landlines and internet access cut off
in the region, it has been impossible
to establish how they are faring.
The best he has managed is to
get through to a local police station
via satellite phones being used by
security forces.
“They just told me that every-
thing is fi ne and that there’s nothing
to worry about. Kashmir is normal,
they said, but from here in London it’s
anything but that,” said Nasti.
As the head of a global charity, he
has good reason to be concerned
about the Himalayan state in which
he was born, which again fi nds itself
plunged into turmoil after the Indian
government revoked its special status.
Known as Article 370, it stripped
away the autonomy that Kashmir
was granted in exchange for joining
the Indian union after independence
in 1947.
The controversial move by India’s
Hindu nationalist prime minister,
Narendra Modi , has led to fears of
widespread unrest and paralysed
normal life as tens of thousands of
extra troops and security personnel
were dispatched to add to the
estimated 500,000 already present,
making it one of the world’s most mil-
itarised zones.
But thousands of miles away from
the verdant valleys and stunning
mountain-top scenery that have led
some to describe Kashmir as “par-
adise on Earth”, towns and cities
across Britain are also feeling the
repercussions.
Of the 1.1 million British Pakistanis,
more than one million originate
Indian troops
patrol the
streets of the
city of Jammu,
in Kashmir,
on Friday.
Photograph by
Jaipal Singh/EPA‘We have to make sure that whatever we
do it does not spill into hatred in Britain’
The UK’s one million
Kashmiris are feeling
the repercussions of
India’s shock move
from the part of Kashmir governed
by Pakistan.
While there are no offi cial fi gures
for the number of Indian Kashmiris
in Britain, the overall British Indian
community numbers almost 1.4 mil-
lion and support for India’s position is
strong among some sections.
Wedged between India and
Pakistan, Kashmir is divided between
the two nations and bitterly contested
by them. Both claim it as their own,
have fought two wars over it and
made it a volatile nuclear fl ashpoint,
given their respective arsenals.
“It’s a very sensitive issue for both
communities and I’m worried that
it could damage relations betweenthe two. We have to make sure that
whatever we do, it does not spill over
into unrest or hatred between British
Indians and Pakistanis,” said Raja
Sikander Khan , a London-based cam-
paigner on Kashmir human rights.
On Thursday , which is India’s inde-
pendence day, a big demonstration is
planned by pro-Kashmir groups out-
side the Indian High Commission in
central London.
A counter demonstration is sched-
uled by British supporters of India’s
ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP). A
number of other events are also set
to take place to draw attention to the
Kashmir issue over the coming weeks
while leading British Pakistani pol-iticians have written to the Foreign
Offi ce and the U N calling for action
against India over its current actions.
Lord Nazir Ahmed , one of the
signatories who originates from
Pakistan-administered Kashmir said:
“There is bound to be some heated
debate between the two communities
but we have to ensure that it remains
just that.
“We are determined to put pressure
on the international community
because what India has done is
illegal. But the solution is through
peaceful dialogue, both between
British Indians and Pakistanis and
the respective governments of
each country.”Vivek ChaudharyПОДГОТОВИЛАГРУППА"What's News"
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