Srinagar (India) (AFP)
At least 4,000 people have been arrested in Indian Kashmir since the revocation of autonomy of the territory by New Delhi two weeks ago, government sources told AFP, giving for the first time an idea of the extent measures taken by the authorities to prevent demonstrations.
These people were arrested under the law on public security, told AFP a magistrate speaking on condition of anonymity. This controversial law allows the authorities to imprison a person up to two years without charge or trial.
"Most of them (the people arrested) were evacuated by plane from Kashmir because the prisons have no place," said the magistrate. He added that he had used a satellite phone that had been assigned to him to collect the numbers from his colleagues across the territory.
The authorities have never officially indicated how many people have been detained since the beginning of this crisis. They merely confirmed the arrest of around a hundred local politicians, activists and academics in the very first days.
They explained that they did not have an overall record of the arrests and justified "the few preventive detention" by the need to avoid "peace being disturbed" in this predominantly Muslim territory claimed by Pakistan, which is the most theater for decades of separatist rebellion.
But AFP was able to confirm the extent of the roundups with many local government officials in Srinagar, the main city of Indian Kashmir, including members of the police and law enforcement.
An officer speaking anonymously said that in Srinagar, "about 6,000 people had undergone a medical examination after being detained".
"They are first sent to the Srinagar Central Prison, and then transported elsewhere by military aircraft," he said.
Another security official reported "thousands of people imprisoned", but added that this figure did not include other residents who were detained in police stations but were not registered.
- Strikes and injuries -
Tensions have remained high in the territory since August 5, when India revoked the constitutional autonomy of the part of Kashmir it controls.
A blackout on communications and heavy traffic restrictions had been imposed by the Indian authorities the day before the announcement on 5 August of the revocation of Article 370 of the Constitution, which conferred this special autonomy status to the Himalayan region.
On Friday, India had begun easing some of these restrictions. But clashes were reported in several places Saturday around Srinagar, leaving eight injured, according to local authorities.
The restrictions were subsequently reinstated following the incidents, the India Press Trust of India (PTI) reported, citing officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.
A senior government official told AFP on Sunday that telephone exchanges would resume normal operations "by the end of the day."
The authorities had previously denied or downplayed reports of violence and emphasized that most of the Kashmir Valley had remained peaceful.
Meanwhile, the Indian military has confirmed that a soldier was killed on Saturday during an "intense" cross-border shootout with Pakistan.
Some 80,000 additional Indian paramilitaries have been deployed in Indian Kashmir. Half a million soldiers are already there in normal times.
India and Pakistan, which shared Kashmir territory after independence in 1947, have since fought three wars, two of them in Kashmir.
© 2019 AFP