Kashmir 'back to dark ages' with India's human rights violations: Amnesty International

The Amnesty International India chapter launched a global campaign to highlight the human cost of over month-long lockdown in occupied Kashmir.

A press release issued by the human rights watchdog in New Delhi said the draconian communication blackout is an outrageous protracted assault on the civil liberties of the people of Kashmir.

The Amnesty said that in response to this indefinite communication blackout, it launched the campaign “Let Kashmir Speak” on 5 September 2019 – which marks a month of the communications blackout – to ask for an immediate lifting of the lockdown.

The global human rights watchdog said, the blackout has now been a month old and cannot be prolonged any further by the Indian government as it has grossly impacted the daily lives of Kashmiri people, their emotional and mental well-being, medical care, as well as their access to basic necessities and emergency services.

It said that depriving an entire population of their right to freedom of expression, opinion and movement for an indefinite period was akin to taking the territory back to the dark ages.

Meanwhile, Kashmir Media Service reported that the Indian authorities have further tightened curfew and other restrictions in the occupied territory to prevent people from holding demonstrations against the repeal of the special status of the territory and taking out Muharram processions, today.

Hundreds of thousands of Indian troops deployed in every nook and corner of the territory continue to restrict millions of people to their houses since August 5, when Narendra Modi-led Indian government revoked special status of occupied Kashmir.