The Siege

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Kashmiris say they live in an "open air prison"

Indian-administered Kashmir has been in the context of an unprecedented lockdown since Monday , when India revoked a special constitutional Status for almost 70 years. The BBC's Geeta Pandey travelled for Two Days to the region, where the bitter feeling of betrayal threatens to fuel fresh conflict.

In The Heart of Srinagar city, Khanyar is notorious territory for anti-India protests. To get here, during what amounts to a virtual 24-hour curfew, we happen to lock a half dozen road.

As we approach a barricade met yet, I Get Out of my car to take Some photos. A couple of men emerge from an alley, to complain about the live under what for many feels like a siege. "This is extremely belongs to thuggery on the government", says an older member of The Group .

The para-military police try and hustle us away, but The Man wants to be. "You lock us up during The Day . You lock us up in the night", he shouts angrily, wagging his finger. The Policeman says, there is a curfew in place and you need to immediately inside. But the little old man stands his ground and calls him again.

At this point, I'm ordered to leave. But before I can the India, to fight a young man with his toddler son in the arms, which tells me that he is ready to have a gun.

"This is my only son. He is too small right now, but I'm going to prepare, to get him to be a gun," he says. He is so angry that he's not even the fact that he says all this in earshot of the police officer standing near us.

the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley , I meet men who tell me that they no longer want To Live , live In Fear of the security forces. A riot has taken place here for 30 years, but what the inhabitants call a "dictatorial rules" from the far of Delhi, people who supported separatism in a corner has to be pushed.

you say, there will be serious consequences for both Kashmir and India.

This is very much the prevailing mood wherever I go - Anger , mixed with fear and worry, and a fierce determination to resist against the Central government.

Srinagar , the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir was under a virtual lockdown since Monday Morning , and The City resembles a Ghost Town . Shops, schools, colleges, and offices are all closed and there is no Public Transport on the Roads .

thousands of gun-wielding patrol people troops empty streets are barricaded to stay with coils of barbed wire, and the residents Locked Up in their homes.

For almost a week now, two former state chief Ministers were in custody, while a third, who is a MP from The State , is currently under House Arrest . Hundreds of others including activists, business people and professors were also detained in makeshift prisons.

Rizwan Malik says Kashmir "now feels like a prison, a large open-air prison".

He flew from Delhi to Srinagar in less than 48 Hours after home Minister Amit Shah put his plans for Kashmir in the Parliament on Monday .

Rizwan Malik flew from Delhi to Srinagar , because he could not reach, his parents said on The Phone for Two Days he that He had last spoken to his parents, on Sunday evening, a few hours before the government shut down all communications, including The Internet It was a total information blackout, and since he couldn't reach any of his friends or relatives either, he decided to Return Home .

"It is the First Time in My Life , we had no way of communicating with anyone. I've never seen anything like this," he said to me in his parents ' house in Srinagar .

Mr Malik is angry that India has lifted in Kashmir ' s special Status , there was a considerable degree of autonomy, and underpins the region's relationship with the rest of India for Decades - Without any consultation with The State people.

He is not someone who believes in separatism, or ever went Out and threw to protest stones at the soldiers; he is a 25-year-old, ambitious young man who is studying to be an accountant in Delhi. He says he has long believed in the idea of India, because he is sold on the history of economic success.

"If India wants to make us believe that it is a democracy, they are wrong. Kashmir had long been an uneasy relationship with India [but] our special Status , The Bridge was closed, the two. Through the car scrappage scheme, you have our identity taken away. This is unacceptable for every Kashmiri," he says.

thousands of troops on patrol in Srinagar , If The Siege is lifted and the protesters are able to, on The Streets , Mr Malik said that every Kashmiri will join them: "It has been said that in every family, a brother who is with the separatists and The Other is with the [Indian] mainstream. Now the Indian government has united the two. "

His sister Rukhsar Ahmed Rashid, a 20-year-old architecture student at the Kashmir University, says, as you heard the Minister of the interior, to cry the speech on television, shaking their hands began, and her mother, who was sitting next to her, began to.

"told you, death would be better than this," said Ms Rashid. "I keep Waking Up with panic attacks. My grandparents, living in The City 's Batmaloo area, it has in Afghanistan. "

India was building up to his big step to the part of Kashmir it controls for Some time. The government first announced at the end of last month, it was the shipment of More Than 35,000 additional troops in the region, an area that is already The Most militarized in The World , because it is a matter of contention between nuclear weapons in India and Pakistan .

the Roads in Srinagar are barricaded cave with concertina wires last week, the annual Hindu pilgrimage to the of Amarnath Shrine was called off abruptly, as The Authorities warned of a threat of terrorism. Then, hotels and house boats along the scenic Dal Lake that were closed and ordered the tourists asked to leave.

Everyone in Kashmir by then knew that something was going on, but of the dozens of people I spoke, no one expected that Delhi would go this far and unilaterally revoke to be part of The Constitution .

The communication blackout means reliable information is hard to come by, and news about what's going on, spreads via word-of-mouth. Despite the lockout, we hear daily reports of protesters by the security forces pelted with stones in Srinagar and elsewhere. We hear a protester drowned when he was chased by troops and jumped into a river. Several people are believed to be injured and in the hospital.

But it has show the Indian government is trying to that all is well in Kashmir .

On Wednesday, the TV channel showed National Security Advisor Ajit Doval lunch with a group of men on The Streets of Shopian, a town that is described in the Indian press as "a hotbed of militancy site". It was an attempt to say to The World , to move that it is the public support for the government, even in The Most difficult areas, and that peace and tranquility reigns.

However, Kashmiris have dismissed it as a stunt. "If people are happy, then why do the output need to lock? Why is it a communication shutdown?", Rizwan Malik asks.

The same question is repeated in any part of the Srinagar - in the homes, on The Streets , in the sensitive old districts of The City , which The Locals call "downtown", and in the southern Federal district's pulwama, the home of the militant who carried Out the audacious suicide attack orientation of the security forces in February brought India and Pakistan close to war.

As I drive through the region, the men hang Out in groups at the roadside or in moving vehicles-to-talk flag on my car with me. You say, Kashmiri voices are suppressed, and they are desperate to be heard. You tell me how angry you are, and issue dire warnings of imminent bloodshed.

"Kashmir is Under Siege at the moment. The moment lifted, problems will begin," Dar says Zahid Hussain , a lawyer, live in's pulwama. "As soon as the political and separatist leaders are freed from prison or House Arrest , will there be protests, and people calls. "

Some in the Indian press reported that there were no large protests in the Kashmir Valley so far, it means that the people have accepted the decision of the government.

But also in Kashmir , I see, seething. I have been visiting the region regularly for over 20 years, a report on the long-running insurgency against Indian rule, but the kind of Anger and resentment that is expressed, is now unprecedented.

The government ordered tourists to leave Kashmir before the lockdown, Most of the people say here, you will. for nothing less than the government, the annulment of his order and restore Kashmir 's special Status

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Source of news: bbc.com