An Indian paramilitary trooper stands guard at a roadblock in Srinagar, where authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir banned all public movement under restrictions which had not been imposed in three years (AFP Photo/Tauseef MUSTAFA)

Srinagar (India) (AFP) - Authorities in Indian-administered Kashmir placed large parts of the disputed region under lockdown early Monday while India sent in tens of thousands of additional troops and traded accusations of clashes with Pakistan at their de facto border.

Communications were cut, with private mobile networks, internet services and telephone landlines cut, an AFP reporter said.

Before the network disruptions, senior former and current Kashmiri political leaders tweeted that they had been put under house arrest.

The Himalayan region has surged back into the spotlight in the past few days, months after a militant attack on an Indian paramilitary convoy claimed by a Pakistan-based group sparked cross-border airstrikes by the nuclear-armed rivals.

They have controlled parts of the region since the end of British colonial rule on the subcontinent in 1947.

But both claim it in full and have fought two of three wars over the territory, where a decades-long insurgency on the Indian side has killed tens of thousands.

"As per the order, there shall be no movement of public and all educational institutions shall also remain closed," the state government ordered for Srinagar, the capital of Indian-administered Kashmir, and surrounding areas in a statement obtained by AFP.

"There will be a complete bar on holding any kind of public meetings or rallies during the period of operation of this order."

Universities, schools and colleges in the Hindu-dominated Jammu were ordered to be shut, and one district in that region was placed under lockdown.

Several other major districts of the Muslim-majority state were also placed under restrictions, local media reported.

The latest tensions started in the last 10 days after New Delhi deployed at least 10,000 troops. A security source told AFP a further 70,000 had been deployed, which is believed to be an unprecedented level.

The government has introduced other security measures over terror threat claims -- including a call to stock up food and fuel.

The measures have sparked growing panic among residents, who formed long queues outside petrol stations, food stores and cash machines.

A heavy presence of troops was seen in parts of Srinagar as gunshots sounded, although the streets remained empty, local residents told AFP.

In downtown Srinagar, government forces threw "chili bombs" that affect respiratory systems onto the deserted streets, a local resident said, while a senior official told AFP that nearly 300 administrative officials and top security officials had been issued with satellite phones.

"I believe I'm being placed under house arrest from midnight tonight & the process has already started for other mainstream leaders," Omar Abdullah, a former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, tweeted before communications were cut.

The last time similar restrictions were imposed in the territory was in 2016 after the killing of a popular rebel leader, which sparked months of street protests that left nearly 100 dead.

The restrictions came as India and Pakistan traded tit-for-tat accusations of attacks across the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing Kashmir.

The Indian army said Sunday it had foiled an attempt by a Pakistani team of army regulars and militants to cross the Line of Control, killing "five to seven" attackers.

Pakistan described the claim as "baseless" and accused India of using cluster bombs against civilians, killing four people and injuring 11 others.

Muhammad Siddique, the father of one victim, told reporters his son Ayan Ahmad was killed by an unexploded cluster munition while he and other youngsters played with it.

New Delhi has denied using the weapons.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan on Sunday accused India of taking "new aggressive actions", saying it could "blow up into a regional crisis".

He called a meeting of the country's national security committee to review the situation in Kashmir.

Tourists and students have scrambled to leave the picturesque region since the government said they should depart "immediately", amid new intelligence about "terror threats" to a major Hindu pilgrimage in the region.

While the Indian military and the state government have highlighted the security risk, Kashmiri and opposition politicians in New Delhi are concerned the extra troops were deployed for other reasons.

Since mid-2018, Indian Kashmir has been under Delhi's direct rule after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party withdrew support for its local partner and dissolved the local government.

There are fears Modi's Hindu nationalist government could carry out a threat to scrap the region's special status under the constitution. </s> India’s government revoked disputed Kashmir’s special status by presidential order on Aug. 5 as thousands of newly deployed troops descended and some internet and phone services were suspended in the restive Himalayan region where most people oppose Indian rule.

Home Minister Amit Shah announced the revocation amid an uproar in India’s two houses of parliament and while Kashmir was under a security lockdown keeping thousands of people inside their homes and unable to communicate with the outside world.

Shah’s statement came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened a cabinet meeting and the government’s top-decision making body on security matters, the Cabinet Committee on Security which he heads.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim the region in its entirety. Two of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought since their independence from British rule were over Kashmir.

The revoked law, Article 370 of the Constitution, gives Jammu and Kashmir its own constitution and decision-making rights for all matters except for defense, communications and foreign affairs. The law also forbids Indians outside the state from permanently settling, buying land, holding local government jobs and securing education scholarships.

Critics of India’s Hindu nationalist-led government see the move as a bid to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers.

According to a copy of the order, the revocation of Article 370 will “come into force at once” and will “supersede the Constitution.”

Despite the blackout on internet services, Jammu and Kashmir’s former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufi, tweeted that the government’s decision is “illegal” and “unconstitutional.”

Shah also introduced the “Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill” which, if passed, will split the state into two union territories — Jammu and Kashmir, which will have an elected legislature, and Ladakh, which will be ruled directly by the central government without a legislature of its own.

Currently, the state of Jammu and Kashmir comprises three regions: Hindu-majority Jammu, Muslim-majority Kashmir and Buddhist-majority Ladakh.

India’s former finance minister, Arun Jaitley, hailed the government’s decision to remove Article 370, praising Modi and Shah for “correcting a historical blunder.”

“A historical wrong has been undone today,” he tweeted.

Regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir had earlier called attempts to revoke Article 370 an aggression against the people.

The law dates to 1927, when an order by the administration of the-then princely state of Jammu and Kashmir gave the state’s subjects exclusive hereditary rights. Two months after India won independence from British rule in August 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, signed a Treaty of Accession for the state to join the rest of the union, formalized in Article 370 of the Indian constitution.

Further discussions culminated in the 1952 Delhi Agreement, a presidential order that extended Indian citizenship to the residents of the state but left the maharaja’s privileges for residents intact.

Late Sunday in Kashmir, government forces laid steel barricades and razor wire on roads and intersections to cut off neighborhoods in Srinagar, the region’s main city. The government issued a security order banning public meetings, rallies and movement and said schools would be closed.

Authorities also suspended internet services on cellphones, a common tactic to prevent anti-India demonstrations from being organized and to stop the dissemination of news.

The order affects about 7 million people living in the region.

The security deployment in recent days adds at least 10,000 soldiers and other forces in Kashmir, to what was already one of the world’s most militarized regions. India also had ordered thousands of tourists and Hindu pilgrims to leave the region.

Tensions also have soared along the Line of Control, the volatile, highly militarized frontier that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

Indian firing along the Line of Control on Sunday wounded one woman, Pakistani police said. In Pakistani border villages, residents were moving to safer places or building and strengthening bunkers and shelters protecting them from cross-border fire.

Pakistan and India routinely blame each other for initiating border skirmishes.

Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party won reelection early this year on a platform that included promises to do away with special rights for Kashmiris under India’s constitution.

At the Srinagar airport, hundreds of Indian and foreign visitors, including some Hindu pilgrims, congregated outside the main terminal, seeking seats on departing flights. Tourists and pilgrims also took buses out of the region, with authorities busing out hundreds of Indian students from Srinagar colleges.

Rebels in Indian-controlled Kashmir have been fighting Indian control since 1989. Most Kashmiris support the rebels’ demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control. About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian crackdown. </s> President Arif Alvi has summoned a joint session of parliament today (Tuesday) to discuss the situation in Kashmir after India repealed articles 35A and 370 of its Constitution, revoking the special status granted to Indian-Administered Kashmir.

Prime Minister Imran Khan and Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa will attend it too. The session will start at 11am.

On Monday, the production orders for former president Asif Ali Zardari, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi have been issued too. National Assembly speaker has sought advice from law ministry on production order of PML-N’s Rana Sanaullah.

The Indian government, on the other hand, has also decided to bifurcate the state into two union territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh. The former will have a legislature while the latter won’t.

The move came after Indian forces locked down Indian-administered Kashmir, cut off internet and cell phone services and put senior leaders under house arrest. It also deployed thousands of additional troops to the region.

Eleven Kashmiris were also killed on the Pakistan side of Kashmir after Indian forces used cluster ammunition targeting civilian population along the Line of Control. On Sunday, Pakistan released evidence in the form of pictures and videos of the bombs in civilian settlements. UN observers also visited the bomb sites.

Condemning the Indian announcements, Pakistan said on Monday the Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory.

India and Pakistan have controlled most of Kashmir since their independence in 1947. Each claims the other’s sector and they have fought two of three wars over the territory.

Nearly 80,000 paramilitary forces have been flown into Kashmir in past 10 days, already the world’s most militarised region where India has roughly 500,000 troops. </s> Government forces have killed five rebels in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said, while a second day of anti-India protests and clashes left five civilians dead and dozens injured in the disputed region.

Government forces have killed five rebels in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said, while a second day of anti-India protests and clashes left five civilians dead and dozens injured in the disputed region.

Counter-insurgency officers and soldiers cordoned off the village following intelligence that a group of militants were hiding there. As the rebels and soldiers fought, government forces also fired bullets, shotgun pellets and tear gas at protesters trying to reach the gunbattle site. Five civilians were killed, one a teenage boy, and at least 50 others were wounded.

It was the second straight day of intense unrest in the region, which India and Pakistan administer parts of but both claim in its entirety. Rebels have been fighting Indian rule since 1989, demanding Indian-controlled Kashmir be made part of Pakistan or become an independent country. Most Kashmiris support the rebel cause while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control.

In recent years, mainly young Kashmiris have displayed open solidarity with rebels and sought to protect them by engaging troops in street clashes during military operations. Last year, at least 29 civilians were killed and hundreds were wounded during such clashes. The funeral of Fayaz Ahmad Hamal, a local rebel, in Srinagar (Dar Yasin/AP) On Saturday, Indian troops killed three suspected rebels during a gunbattle in Srinagar, while one civilian was killed when a police armoured vehicle ran over him during clashes with government forces. Another three men were killed in shootings the police blamed on rebels.

Businesses shuttered in most parts of Kashmir on Sunday after separatists called for a strike to protest the previous day’s deaths. Internet on mobile phones also remained suspended for a second day, a common practice by Indian authorities to make organising protests difficult. Armed police and paramilitary soldiers patrolled across the region and also enforced a security lockdown in old parts of Srinagar, the urban heart of anti-India protests.

After several hours of fighting, five militants were killed and a policeman and a soldier wounded, said SP Vaid, police director-general. Among those killed were a top rebel commander and a university assistant professor who formally joined the militant ranks just two days before.

A statement by the University of Kashmir on Saturday said the sociology teacher, Mohammed Rafi Bhat, had been missing since Friday. Kashmir University suspends class work for two days Five Hizb militants, including a professor working in the sociology... Posted by University of Kashmir on Sunday, May 6, 2018 Mr Vaid said they repeatedly asked the militants to surrender.

“We made every effort so that they surrender. We even brought the university teacher’s father all the way to Shopian. But they refused,” Mr Vaid said. Anti-India protests and clashes continued in the area and also spread to some other towns and villages of southern Kashmir.

Anticipating protests, the University of Kashmir on Sunday issued a statement saying the classes would remain suspended for the next two days “as a precautionary measure”. In recent years, Kashmir has seen renewed rebel attacks and repeated public protests against Indian rule as a new generation of Kashmiri rebels, especially in the southern parts of the region, has revived the militancy and challenged New Delhi’s rule with guns and effective use of social media. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, a charge Pakistan denies. </s> • India on Monday revoked part of its constitution that established the quasi-independence of Kashmir, a disputed region between India and Pakistan.
• The articles had allowed Kashmir to make its own laws, and banned non-Kashmiris from moving there or working for its government.
• The state will now be directly under the control of India’s federal government in New Delhi.
• Over the weekend Indian authorities sent thousands of troops into the already heavily-militarized region, and told tourists to get out.
• India also shut down the internet and put local political figures under house arrest.

India has shut off the internet, placed politicians under house arrest, and ordered tourists to leave the disputed region of Kashmir after it annulled part of its constitution that gave the region a large degree of independence from the rest of the country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government on Monday revoked Articles 35a and 370 of its constitution, which gave the state of Jammu and Kashmir a “special” status that allowed it to make its own laws.

The state will now be reorganized into two territories – Jammu and Kashmir being one, and Ladakh being the other. The regions will be governed by the Indian federal authorities in New Delhi as opposed to individual state governors.

Jammu and Kashmir’s quasi-independence dates back to 1927, when the region’s administration allowed its subjects to have a separate set of rules for inheriting property.

After India and Pakistan separated in 1947, the maharajah of Jammu and Kashmir chose to become part of India, with Article 370 of the Indian Constitution preserving its “special status.” This angered Pakistan, which supported many insurgencies in the region.

Pakistan continues to claim Jammu and Kashmir as its own territory.

The constitutional provision also blocked Indians from outside the region from living there, owning property, or getting government jobs. It also prohibits women from inheriting property if they marry someone from outside the state.

Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) argue that constitutional provisions regarding Jammu and Kashmir’s “special status” are temporary, and has long vowed to revoke them.

During general elections this May, the BJP said the “special status” was “discriminatory against non-permanent residents and women of Kashmir.”

It added: “We believe that Article 35A is an obstacle in the development of the state.”

The BJP won those elections by a landslide, increasing its seats in parliament.

Jammu and Kashmir are currently split between India, Pakistan, and China. The area remains heavily contested between India and Pakistan.

Many of the region’s residents, who are mostly Muslim, hope for independence or to be ruled by Pakistan, the BBC reported. It is one of the most heavily-militarized areas in the world.

The longstanding tensions over Kashmir reignited in February after a suicide attack killed 44 Indian paramilitary police in the Indian-controlled side of the region.

Read more: Here’s what life is like on the border between India and Pakistan, one of the world’s most disputed regions

Indian Border Security Force soldiers patrol a footbridge near the Line of Control (LoC), a ceasefire line dividing Kashmir between India and Pakistan, in August 2013.

Troops move in as tourists stream out

India has moved thousands of troops into Kashmir and placed heavy restrictions on the daily life of its 7 million resident since Friday, citing an impending terror threat.

Indian Army officials said Pakistan-based militants were planning an attack on the approximately 300,000 Hindus who were in the region for an annual pilgrimage, The Associated Press (AP) and The New York Times reported.

Thousands of tourists and students have been fleeing the region per government orders, the AP reported.

But many Kashmiris doubted the claims of an impending terror attack and wondered if there were other reasons for the sudden troop increase in the region.

The Indian army also fired along the Line of Control – which divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan on Sunday – and wounded one woman, the AP reported, citing Pakistani police.

Indian authorities in the region also shut off the internet and cut landlines in many households over the weekend.

Blocking communications is a common strategy to prevent people from organizing anti-India demonstration and to stop the spreading of news that may be unsavory to the government, according to the AP.

Some people were able to bypass the internet ban, however. The Indian state-owned BSNL telcom provider sold satellite phones to journalists on the ground for 100,000 rupees ($1,419) apiece so they could continue reporting.

Indian officials also placed top regional leaders, including former chief ministers Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, under house arrest amid the mounting tensions.

“Today marks the darkest day in Indian democracy,” Mufti tweeted shortly after India scrapped the constitutional provisions for Jammu and Kashmir’s independence.

“The manner in which they [Indian officials] want to bulldoze our special identity is illegal & makes India an occupational force,” she later said.

US President Donald Trump offered to mediate the Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India last week in a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan two weeks ago.

Khan appeared to take up Trump’s offer on Sunday after Indian troops moved into the region, warning in a tweet: “This has the potential to blow up into a regional crisis.”

Read more: Trump’s casual offer to mediate the Kashmir dispute reveals a disastrous misunderstanding of the powder-keg region

Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Monday said that India’s annulment of the two articles violates UN Security Council resolutions, India Today reported. </s> [NEW DELHI] The Indian government on Monday revoked Kashmir's special status, stripping the significant autonomy it has enjoyed for seven decades in a move expected to further inflame tensions in the Muslim-majority region and infuriate rival Pakistan.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu-nationalist party rushed through a presidential decree to scrap the disputed region's special status in the constitution, and also moved a bill proposing the territory be divided into two regions directly ruled by New Delhi.

The government imposed a security lockdown and cut all telecommunications in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir in the early hours of Monday after deploying tens of thousands of troops in the past week, claiming there was a terror threat.

Home Minister Amit Shah, a close ally of Mr Modi, told parliament the president had issued a decree abolishing Article 370 of the constitution, which gives special autonomy to the Himalayan region.

The decree said the measure came into force "at once".

Kashmir has been divided between Indian and Pakistan since their independence in 1947. For three decades the Indian-administered part of the territory has been in the grip of an insurgency that has left tens of thousands dead.

Armed Kashmiri rebels and many residents have fought for the region's independence or to join neighbour Pakistan.

There were already growing fears among Kashmiris that the special status would be ditched after Mr Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) obtained a large parliamentary majority in recent elections.

His party had vowed to fulfil a long-held promise to scrap the laws, and many fear New Delhi wants to change the region's demographics by allowing non-Kashmiris, mostly Hindus, to buy land locally.

The move is set to exacerbate the already bloody rebellion in Kashmir and deepen the long-running amorosity with nuclear rival Pakistan which has fought two out of three wars with India over the territory.

"There will a very strong reaction in Kashmir. It's already in a state of unrest and this will only make it worse," Wajahat Habibullah, a former senior bureaucrat in Jammu and Kashmir, told AFP.

The announcement sparked chaotic scenes in the national parliament, with opposition politicians shouting protests.

The main opposition Congress party described the decision as a "catastrophic step".

One lawmaker from the regional Kashmir-based Peoples Democratic Party tore up a copy of Indian constitution before being reportedly removed from the chambers by parliamentary marshals.

Former Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti tweeted that the latest move was the "darkest day in Indian democracy".

"Unilateral decision of GOI (government of India) to scrap Article 370 is illegal & unconstitutional which will make India an occupational force in J&K (Jammu and Kashmir)," she added.

In Pakistan, a representative of Prime Minister Imran Khan, Firdous Ashiq Awan, tweeted that his nation would continue to provide Kashmir with "moral, diplomatic and political support" until it achieves self-determination.

The unprecedented move followed days of uncertainty in the region that began on Friday when New Delhi ordered tourists and Hindu pilgrims to leave "immediately".

All phones, internet services and cable networks in the restive Himalayan region of more than seven million people were cut at midnight, and only residents issued with a curfew pass were allowed on the streets.

Article 370 of the Indian constitution gives special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It limits the power of the Indian parliament to impose laws in the state, apart from matters of defence, foreign affairs and communications. </s> NEW DELHI - India's government revoked disputed Kashmir's special status with a presidential order Monday as thousands of newly deployed troops arrived and internet and phone services were cut in the restive Himalayan region where most people oppose Indian rule.

Home Minister Amit Shah announced the revocation amid an uproar in India's Parliament and while Kashmir was under a security lockdown that kept thousands of people inside their homes. The decree needs the approval of the ruling party-controlled Parliament, which was debating it on Monday.

The order revokes Article 370 of India's Constitution, eliminating the state of Jammu and Kashmir's right to its own constitution and decision-making process for all matters except defence, communications and foreign affairs. The government's action would also strip Kashmir of its protection from Indians from outside the state permanently settling, buying land, holding local government jobs and securing educational scholarships.

Critics of India's Hindu nationalist-led government see the move as an attempt to dilute the demographics of Muslim-majority Kashmir with Hindu settlers.

The announcement came after Prime Minister Narendra Modi convened a Cabinet meeting and the government's top-decision making body on security matters, the Cabinet Committee on Security, which he heads.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan and both claim the region in its entirety. Two of the three wars India and Pakistan have fought since their independence from British rule were over Kashmir.

Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, told a Pakistani TV station on Monday from Saudi Arabia, where he is on a pilgrimage to Mecca, that Pakistan will step up diplomatic efforts to prevent the order from taking effect.

"India is playing a very dangerous game by changing the status of Kashmir through illegal acts," he said.

In Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, hundreds of Kashmiri activists rallied against the change in Kashmir's status near the diplomatic enclave where India's embassy is located. Authorities kept demonstrators away from the building because of security concerns.

Ghulam Mohammad Safi, a prominent Kashmiri leader in Pakistan, urged the United Nations and the international community to help Kashmir achieve self-determination.

The president of the Pakistan-controlled portion of Kashmir, Sardar Masood Khan, also rejected the Indian presidential order and said it could lead to a war with Pakistan.

Jammu and Kashmir's former chief minister, Mehbooba Mufi, tweeted that the Indian government's decision is "illegal" and "unconstitutional."

Government officials said the presidential order will take effect after it is approved by Parliament, which is controlled by Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.

Shah also introduced the "Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Bill" which, if passed, would split the state into two union territories — Jammu and Kashmir, which will have an elected legislature, and Ladakh, which will be ruled directly by the central government without a legislature of its own.

Currently, the state of Jammu and Kashmir comprises three regions: Hindu-majority Jammu, Muslim-majority Kashmir and Buddhist-majority Ladakh.

The reaction in Ladakh, a pristine, sparsely populated area that stretches from the Siachen Glacier to the Himalayas, was mixed, said Tsewang Gyalson, a guide whose family's roots are centuries deep.

"Some fear that people from outside will come and start business or will buy lands. Maybe slowly our identity will disappear," he said.

India's former finance minister, Arun Jaitley, hailed the government's decision to remove Article 370, praising Modi and Shah for "correcting a historical blunder."

"A historical wrong has been undone today," he tweeted.

Regional parties in Jammu and Kashmir had earlier called attempts to revoke Article 370 an aggression against the people.

Many political parties in other Indian regions, however, welcomed the decision.

"In a real sense today, Jammu and Kashmir has become part of India. My party supports this resolution," Prasanna Acharya, leader of the Biju Janata Dal party, said in Parliament's upper house.

The provision dates to 1927, when an order by the administration of the then-princely state of Jammu and Kashmir gave its subjects exclusive hereditary rights. Two months after India won independence from British rule in August 1947, Maharaja Hari Singh, the ruler of Jammu and Kashmir, signed a Treaty of Accession for the state to join the rest of the union, formalized in Article 370 of the Indian Constitution.

Further discussions culminated in the 1952 Delhi Agreement, a presidential order that extended Indian citizenship to the residents of the state but left the maharaja's privileges for residents intact.

Late Sunday in Kashmir, government forces laid steel barricades and razor wire on roads and intersections to cut off neighbourhoods in Srinagar, the region's main city. The government issued a security order banning public meetings, rallies and movement and said schools would be closed.

Authorities also suspended internet services on cellphones, a common tactic to prevent anti-India demonstrations from being organized and to stop the dissemination of news.

The order affects about 7 million people living in the region, including journalists who faced difficulties in relaying information to the outside world.

It was unclear when the security measures would be lifted, or the extent to which many Kashmiris were aware of the presidential order being debated in Parliament, since access had been cut off.

The security deployment in recent days added at least 10,000 soldiers and other forces in Kashmir, which was already one of the world's most militarized regions. India also ordered thousands of tourists and Hindu pilgrims to leave the region.

Tensions also have soared along the Line of Control, the volatile, highly militarized frontier that divides Kashmir between India and Pakistan.

Modi and his Hindu nationalist party won reelection early this year on a platform that included promises to do away with special rights for Kashmiris.

In a statement, Amnesty International India said the move could "cause unrest and wide scale protests in the state."

Rebels in Indian-controlled Kashmir have been fighting Indian control since 1989. Most Kashmiris support the rebels' demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country, while also participating in civilian street protests against Indian control. About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing Indian crackdown.

Associated Press writers Aijaz Hussain in Srinagar and Munir Ahmed in Islamabad contributed to this report. </s> Indian migrant laborers carry their luggage and prepare to leave the region, at a railway station in Jammu, India, Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2019. Indian lawmakers passed a bill Tuesday that strips statehood from the Indian-administered portion of Muslim-majority Kashmir, which remains under an indefinite security lockdown, actions that archrival Pakistan warned could lead to war. (AP Photo/Channi Anand)

JAMMU, India (AP) — Hit by a complete security lockdown in Kashmir, hundreds of poor migrant workers have begun fleeing the Himalayan region to return to their far-away villages in northern and eastern India.

Some complained on Wednesday that their Kashmiri employers didn’t pay them any salary as security forces began imposing tight travel restrictions over the weekend and asked them to leave their jobs.

Authorities in Hindu-majority India clamped a complete shutdown on Kashmir as they scrapped the Muslim-majority state’s special status, including exclusive hereditary rights and a separate constitution, and divided it into two territories.

The Kashmir region is divided between India and Pakistan and is claimed by both. The two nuclear-armed neighbors have fought three wars, two of them over control of Kashmir, since they won independence from British colonialists in 1947.

Pakistan announced Wednesday that it is downgrading its diplomatic ties with India and suspending bilateral trade in response to New Delhi’s decision to reduce Kashmir’s special status.

On Wednesday, workers crowded the railroad station at Jammu, the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir state, as they waited for trains bound for Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand. They carried their belongings on their heads and under their arms, tied in bedsheets.

Jagdish Mathur, a worker, said many people walked for miles (kilometers) on a highway and hitched rides on army trucks and buses from Srinagar to Jammu, a distance of 260 kilometers (160 miles).

“We haven’t eaten properly for the past four days,” said Mathur, adding that he doesn’t have money to buy a rail ticket to take him to his village in eastern Bihar state. “The government should help me.”

Surjit Singh, a carpenter, told the New Delhi television channel that he was returning home because of Kashmir’s security lockdown.

Every year, tens of thousands of people travel to Kashmir from various Indian states looking for work, mainly masonry, carpentry and agriculture. Whenever the security situation deteriorates, they return homes.

Insurgent groups have been fighting for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan since 1989. India accuses Pakistan of arming and training the rebels, a charge Pakistan denies. </s> SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Police say fresh clashes have killed one protester and injured five in India's portion of Kashmir, as a security lockdown marred Eid festivities in the troubled region.

A police officer says security forces fired tear gas and shotgun pellets to quell protesters Tuesday in the Bandipora area of northern Kashmir and Shopian in the south. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to reporters.

Shops and businesses were closed, with a curfew in effect in the entire Kashmir Valley. Most people remained indoors for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha, which fell on Tuesday.

The region has been wracked by protests for two months following the killing of a rebel leader. Over 70 civilians have been killed and thousands wounded, mostly by government forces.
Kashmir remains on lockdown, with the internet out and nearly all phone lines severed.