Kashmir simmers between dueling nuclear powers
IT’S APPLE SEASON IN KASHMIR, BUT in orchards across the fertile Himalayan valley, unpicked fruit rots on the branches. Markets lack their usual bustle, most shops are open for only a few hours each morning, and schools and colleges are largely empty of students.
The slowdown reflects both the firm grip of the Indian government on the Muslim-majority state and the Kashmirian people’s seemingly spontaneous reaction to it. A tweet posted on the account of Mehbooba Mufti, the state’s former chief minister who has been detained for more than two months, read, “Kashmiris have been resolute about a civil curfew as a mark of protest.”
It was on Aug. 5 that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government said it would scrap the citing previous Internet blackouts that still left phone services intact. “There was an absolute silence.” Already one of the world’s most militarized regions, the Valley was flooded with thousands of Indian troops.
