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Indian PM Vows to Spur Kashmir Development After Scrapping Special Status

Anjana Pasricha

   NEW DELHI - As Indian Kashmir remained in an unprecedented lockdown,
   Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised Kashmiris the beginning of a "new
   era" as a result of his government's decision to scrap the region's
   special status and bring it under New Delhi's control.
   In an address Thursday on television and radio, Modi defended revoking
   the constitutional provision under which Kashmir could make its own
   laws, saying it had impeded its progress, given rise to terrorism and
   was used as a weapon by rival Pakistan to "instigate some people."
   India will now rid the region of "terrorism and terrorists," he said.
   New Delhi blames Islamabad for fomenting a violent three-decade
   separatist insurgency in the disputed Himalayan region that both
   counties claim.
   With Kashmir in a communications blackout for a fourth straight day, it
   was not clear how residents of India's only Muslim-majority region
   reacted to the Hindu nationalist leader's assurances of more
   development, jobs and better governance. Most Kashmiris could have
   heard his speech only on radio, as internet service and cable
   television network operations remain suspended.
   But with scattered incidents of stone-throwing already being reported,
   despite curfew-like restrictions, there are fears that widespread
   protests could erupt in coming days. Anger and resentment are growing,
   not just at the decision to change Kashmir's seven-decade-old status
   but at the clampdown that has been more sweeping than ever before and
   virtually shuttered the region. Even reporters are finding it difficult
   to get information.
   Police officers in riot gear are deployed every few meters on the
   streets in the capital, Srinagar, and barbed-wire checkpoints have been
   set up at major intersections.

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