NEW DELHI: Indian security forces have arrested more 500 people since New Delhi imposed a communications blackout and security clampdown in Jammu and Kashmir, where people remained holed up in their homes for a fourth day.
A petition was filed meanwhile in India’s top court challenging the lockdown.
The rigorous security measures followed India’s government decision this week to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and downgrade the Himalayan region from statehood to a territory.
State-run All India Radio, which reported on the arrests without details, also said that cross-border firing by Indian and Pakistani troops hit the Rajouri sector of the Indian-administered Kashmir late Wednesday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s national security adviser, Ajit Doval, visited the region on Wednesday to assess the law and order situation.
Activist Ali Mohammed told the New Delhi Television news channel that he has been organising ambulances to carry sick poor people to hospitals in Srinagar as local residents can’t even use phones to ask for medical help.
“It’s hell,” a patient told the television channel.
Opposition Congress party activist Tehseen Poonawalla said he expected the Supreme Court to hear his petition on Thursday seeking immediate lifting of curfew and other restrictions, including blocking of phone lines, internet and news channels in Kashmir.
He also sought the immediate release of Kashmiri leaders who have been detained, including Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.
University professors, business leaders and activists are among the 560 people rounded up by authorities and taken to makeshift detention centres — some during midnight raids — in the cities of Srinagar, Baramulla and Gurez, the Press Trust of India and the Indian Express reported.
ANI news agency also reported that the leader of the opposition in the upper house, Ghulam Nabi Azad from the Congress party, was stopped at Srinagar airport when he flew to the city and sent back.
The detentions came as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was set to address the nation on the radio later Thursday to explain his Hindu nationalist government’s decision.
Tens of thousands of Indian troops are enforcing the lockdown which includes no internet or phone services, and are allowing only limited movement on streets usually bustling with tourists flocking to the picturesque valley.
Experts warn that the valley is likely to erupt in anger at the government’s shock unilateral move once the restrictions are lifted, which could come on the Muslim festival of Eid on Monday.
Late Wednesday India’s aviation security agency advised airports across the country to step up security as “civil security has emerged as a soft target for terrorist attacks” on the back of the Kashmir move.
