Curfew, communication blackout in occupied Kashmir enters 22nd day

SRINAGAR: The Indian authorities continued to impose curfew and other restrictions across the occupied Kashmir on the 22^nd consecutive day, on Monday, to prevent people from holding demonstrations against move of scraping special status to the held valley.

According to Kashmir Media Service, due to the severe blockade, people are facing acute shortage of essential commodities including baby food and life-saving medicines and the valley represents a humanitarian crisis.

Hundreds of thousands of people are besieged and the held valley has become a big jail for its inhabitants.

The authorities also continue to impose information blockade as TV channels and internet links are snapped and restrictions on media remain in place since 5th of this month.

The authorities have put almost all Hurriyat leaders, including Syed Ali Gilani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, under house arrest or in jails.

Over 10,000 Kashmiris including hundreds of political leaders and workers have been detained. The jails and police stations have run out of space and many detainees have been lodged in makeshift detention centres.

A hotel in Srinagar being used as a makeshift detention centre has been declared a sub-jail. Around 50 pro-India political leaders are detained in the hotel.