• 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> Supporters of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) light firecrackers and celebrate the government revoking Kashmir’s special status, in Lucknow, India, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2019. Indian lawmakers passed a bill Tuesday that strips the statehood from the Indian-administered portion of Muslim-majority Kashmir amid an indefinite security lockdown in the disputed Himalayan territory, actions that neighboring Pakistan warned could lead to war. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

NEW DELHI (AP) — India is redrawing its political map again.

Parliament has approved a proposal by the Hindu nationalist-led government that strips statehood from Jammu and Kashmir, its only Muslim-majority state, splitting the region into two union territories after revoking its special rights under India’s Constitution.

Although India has redrawn its map many times since gaining independence from the British in 1947, the decision is likely to raise tensions in the already-volatile Himalayan region between India and Pakistan. Both nuclear-armed countries claim the territory, and India’s action will further entrench the idea of Hindu majority rule espoused by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.

The move takes from the region and its people some political autonomy and hereditary rights by revoking Article 370 of India’s Constitution.

The lawmakers’ decision will also lift a ban on property purchases by nonresidents of Kashmir, opening the way for Indians outside the territory to invest and settle there. That is something the local Muslim population has long feared will change its demography, culture and way of life.

India’s move came as an indefinite security lockdown kept most of the region’s 7 million people in their homes and in the dark about the changes.

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

Erasing the autonomy of the region will inflame the sentiments of most Kashmiris who demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

More than half a million Indian soldiers are stationed in Kashmir to counter a rebellion that seeks to secede from India, and there are near-daily demonstrations against Indian control. About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing crackdown since 1989.

Home Minister Amit Shah also introduced a bill which downgrades Jammu and Kashmir from a state to a union territory with an elected legislature. It also carves out the region of Ladakh as a separate union territory, ruled directly by the central government without a legislature of its own. The bill was passed Tuesday by Parliament.

The bill has been applauded by India’s Hindu nationalist parties, which have been seeking to fully integrate Kashmir since the country’s partition into India and Pakistan in 1947. The Modi government’s ideological mentor, the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh organization, praised the decision, describing it as “brave” and “necessary” for the national interest.

Critics have already likened Kashmir’s proposed new arrangement to the West Bank or Tibet, with settlers — armed or civilian — living in guarded compounds among disenfranchised locals.

“The decision (to split the region) will reduce Kashmir to a colony,” said A.G. Noorani, a constitutional expert who has written extensively about Kashmir, including the 2011 book “Article 370: A Constitutional History of Jammu and Kashmir.”

Noorani said splitting the region into federal territories will “divide Kashmir from the rest of the country and Kashmiris will oppose the Hindu feeling in the region.”

Dibyesh Anand, a social scientist at the University of Westminster, said “the fear of settler colonialism is not a specter but a reality, given the approach of both the government and a large number of Indians.”

Anand said there will a major transformation of the socio-economic landscape in Kashmir, where Hindu Indian settlers will be “presented as patriotic pioneers braving Kashmiri Muslim resentment.”

Human rights activists and residents of the troubled state have long feared such a move could destabilize the region and plunge it into chaos by redrawing sectarian lines.

Still, the main worry for many is that the central government’s actions will set in motion a plan to crush the identity of the people of Kashmir.

Indian census data puts the total population of the Indian-controlled part of Jammu and Kashmir at 12.5 million, about 68% Muslim, 28% Hindu and just under 1% Buddhist. Within the state, Kashmir is about 94% Muslim while Jammu is about 63% Hindu and 33% Muslim.

The remote mountainous Ladakh region has a population of just 274,289 people, with 46% Muslim and about 40% Buddhist.

The immediate implications are that Kashmir will lose its flag, criminal code and constitution.

Before the region’s special rights were revoked, New Delhi needed the regional government’s approval to apply all other laws — except in defense, foreign affairs, finance and communications.

Turning Kashmir into a union territory means the central government will gain much more control over the area’s affairs, including its courts. Electoral constituencies will be reorganized using 2011 census figures. This could further inflame the region if more power is shifted to Jammu, where Modi and his Hindu-nationalist party enjoy strong support.

Some experts questioned whether India’s actions were legal.

“This move is a violation of the procedure in any case and can be challenged by the Supreme Court. Article 370 can only be managed by the government of Jammu and Kashmir. So, this Parliament cannot abrogate it. This is what the law says,” Noorani said.

Many constitutional experts say the provision that allows Article 370 to be altered by presidential order requires the consent of the constituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir and is therefore void because the assembly was dissolved in 1956.

“This clearly means that it (Article 370) cannot be revoked, because the only body which could have recommended it has ceased to exist,” said Yogendra Yadav, a political analyst.

Meanwhile, India’s main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, voiced strong opposition to the way the government went about repealing the region’s special status.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, defeated by Modi in May elections, criticized the “abuse of executive power” by the ruling party and said the move would have grave implications for national security.

“National integration isn’t furthered by unilaterally tearing apart J&K, imprisoning elected representatives and violating our Constitution. This nation is made by its people, not plots of land,” Gandhi tweeted. </s> The Indian government has announced the decision to revoke the special status of Kashmir. Amit Shah, the home minister, made the announcement revoking Article 370 of the Constitution in the upper house of Parliament on Monday morning despite strong opposition from opposition politicians.

Article 370 provides special status to the mainly Muslim population of Jammu and Kashmir. The move to rescind Kashmir's special status was a campaign promise of India’s governing Bharatiya Janata Party. For many years, Kashmir has been governed differently than other parts of India, and the government’s decision is widely seen as a blow to Kashmir’s autonomy.

Ahead of the announcement, the Indian government sent at least 8,000 additional paramilitary troops to Jammu and Kashmir. Additional troops are being carried by C-17 transport planes of the Indian Air Force to Srinagar, which is the largest city in the state, the NDTV broadcaster reported. The troops are set to ensure increased security and will add to the over 35,000 soldiers that were sent there over the last week.

The Indian authorities also evacuated tourists, closed schools and cut off internet service. New Delhi has also put its armed forces on high alert to prevent attempts by secessionist groups to foment trouble in Kashmir. Regional party leaders have also been taking into custody. Security has been increased across India, particularly at key installations, including the Metro Rail in the capital New Delhi.

​Reports indicate that more troops could be airlifted to reinforce security in Kashmir. New Delhi deployed additional troops in the region last week following attempts by militants based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to cross over to India, intermittent firing by Pakistani forces and reports of possible terrorist strikes against the annual Hindu pilgrimage to the Cave Shrine of Amarnath. </s> NEW DELHI (AP) — India is redrawing its political map again.

Parliament has approved a proposal by the Hindu nationalist-led government that strips statehood from Jammu and Kashmir, its only Muslim-majority state, splitting the region into two union territories after revoking its special rights under India's Constitution.

Although India has redrawn its map many times since gaining independence from the British in 1947, the decision is likely to raise tensions in the already-volatile Himalayan region between India and Pakistan. Both nuclear-armed countries claim the territory, and India's action will further entrench the idea of Hindu majority rule espoused by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.

The move takes from the region and its people some political autonomy and hereditary rights by revoking Article 370 of India's Constitution.

The lawmakers' decision will also lift a ban on property purchases by nonresidents of Kashmir, opening the way for Indians outside the territory to invest and settle there. That is something the local Muslim population has long feared will change its demography, culture and way of life.

India's move came as an indefinite security lockdown kept most of the region's 7 million people in their homes and in the dark about the changes.

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

Erasing the autonomy of the region will inflame the sentiments of most Kashmiris who demand that the territory be united either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

More than half a million Indian soldiers are stationed in Kashmir to counter a rebellion that seeks to secede from India, and there are near-daily demonstrations against Indian control. About 70,000 people have been killed in the uprising and the ensuing crackdown since 1989.

Home Minister Amit Shah also introduced a bill which downgrades Jammu and Kashmir from a state to a union territory with an elected legislature. It also carves out the region of Ladakh as a separate union territory, ruled directly by the central government without a legislature of its own. The bill was passed Tuesday by Parliament.

The bill has been applauded by India's Hindu nationalist parties, which have been seeking to fully integrate Kashmir since the country's partition into India and Pakistan in 1947. The Modi government's ideological mentor, the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh organization, praised the decision, describing it as "brave" and "necessary" for the national interest.

Critics have already likened Kashmir's proposed new arrangement to the West Bank or Tibet, with settlers — armed or civilian — living in guarded compounds among disenfranchised locals.

"The decision (to split the region) will reduce Kashmir to a colony," said A.G. Noorani, a constitutional expert who has written extensively about Kashmir, including the 2011 book "Article 370: A Constitutional History of Jammu and Kashmir."

Noorani said splitting the region into federal territories will "divide Kashmir from the rest of the country and Kashmiris will oppose the Hindu feeling in the region."

Dibyesh Anand, a social scientist at the University of Westminster, said "the fear of settler colonialism is not a specter but a reality, given the approach of both the government and a large number of Indians."

Anand said there will a major transformation of the socio-economic landscape in Kashmir, where Hindu Indian settlers will be "presented as patriotic pioneers braving Kashmiri Muslim resentment."

Human rights activists and residents of the troubled state have long feared such a move could destabilize the region and plunge it into chaos by redrawing sectarian lines.

Still, the main worry for many is that the central government's actions will set in motion a plan to crush the identity of the people of Kashmir.

Indian census data puts the total population of the Indian-controlled part of Jammu and Kashmir at 12.5 million, about 68% Muslim, 28% Hindu and just under 1% Buddhist. Within the state, Kashmir is about 94% Muslim while Jammu is about 63% Hindu and 33% Muslim.

The remote mountainous Ladakh region has a population of just 274,289 people, with 46% Muslim and about 40% Buddhist.

The immediate implications are that Kashmir will lose its flag, criminal code and constitution.

Before the region's special rights were revoked, New Delhi needed the regional government's approval to apply all other laws — except in defense, foreign affairs, finance and communications.

Turning Kashmir into a union territory means the central government will gain much more control over the area's affairs, including its courts. Electoral constituencies will be reorganized using 2011 census figures. This could further inflame the region if more power is shifted to Jammu, where Modi and his Hindu-nationalist party enjoy strong support.

Some experts questioned whether India's actions were legal.

"This move is a violation of the procedure in any case and can be challenged by the Supreme Court. Article 370 can only be managed by the government of Jammu and Kashmir. So, this Parliament cannot abrogate it. This is what the law says," Noorani said.

Many constitutional experts say the provision that allows Article 370 to be altered by presidential order requires the consent of the constituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir and is therefore void because the assembly was dissolved in 1956.

"This clearly means that it (Article 370) cannot be revoked, because the only body which could have recommended it has ceased to exist," said Yogendra Yadav, a political analyst.

Meanwhile, India's main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, voiced strong opposition to the way the government went about repealing the region's special status.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, defeated by Modi in May elections, criticized the "abuse of executive power" by the ruling party and said the move would have grave implications for national security.

"National integration isn't furthered by unilaterally tearing apart J&K, imprisoning elected representatives and violating our Constitution. This nation is made by its people, not plots of land," Gandhi tweeted. </s> Beijing China said on Tuesday that India should avoid “unilateral actions” in Jammu and Kashmir that could spark tensions in the region even as it described New Delhi’s decision to make Ladakh a union territory as “unacceptable”.

In a swift response, India’s external affairs ministry rejected the Chinese criticism and said the proposal for a new union territory of Ladkah was an “internal matter”. It pointed out the two sides have agreed to maintain peace along their disputed border until a mutually acceptable solution is found.

Beijing’s strong response came a day after the Indian government revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and proposed splitting the state into two separate union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

China hadn’t immediately responded to the move on Monday, though it was expected to do so for two reasons – its close ally Pakistan is deeply invested in Kashmir, and part of the disputed Sino-India boundary in Aksai Chin lies in Ladakh. The Chinese foreign ministry issued two statements in Mandarin on the issue on Tuesday.

“We urge India to be cautious in its words and deeds on the border issue, strictly abide by the relevant agreements reached between the two sides, and avoid taking actions that further complicate the border issue,” said a statement published on the foreign ministry’s website, referring to protracted negotiations between the two sides on the disputed border.

“China has always opposed India’s inclusion of Chinese territory in India’s administrative jurisdiction in the western part of the Sino-Indian border. This position is firm, consistent and has never changed,” the statement added in a reference to the area in Ladakh that New Delhi claims but is controlled by Beijing.

“In recent days, the Indian side has continued to undermine China’s territorial sovereignty by unilaterally amending its domestic laws. This practice is unacceptable and will not produce any effect,” the statement said.

In a separate statement on India revoking Kashmir’s special status and exchanges of fire between Indian and Pakistani troops on the Line of Control, the foreign ministry described the situation as very tense.

The statement also referred to India despatching a large number of troops to the region and said: “China is seriously concerned about the current situation in Kashmir. China’s position on the Kashmir issue is clear and consistent. This issue is a legacy of history between India and Pakistan, which is also the consensus of the international community.”

It added, “The parties concerned should exercise restraint and act with caution, especially to avoid actions that unilaterally change the status quo and exacerbate the tension. We call on the two sides to peacefully resolve relevant disputes through dialogue and consultation and safeguard regional peace and stability.”

Responding to China’s criticism, external affairs ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said the bill introduced in India’s Parliament for creating a new union territory of Ladakh was “an internal matter concerning the territory of India”.

“India does not comment on the internal affairs of other countries and similarly expects other countries to do likewise,” he said.

Kumar noted New Delhi and Beijing had agreed to find a “fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable settlement” of the border dispute on the basis of “Political Parameters and Guiding Principles for the Settlement of India-China Boundary Question”. He added both sides had agreed to maintain peace and tranquillity in border areas till such a settlement is reached.

Home minister Amit Shah told the Lok Sabha that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Aksai Chin too are part of Jammu and Kashmir and that “we are ready to give our lives for it”. Moving a resolution for revoking provisions of Article 370, Shah said there was a long-standing demand for giving union territory status to Ladakh.

“Kashmir is an integral part of India, there is no doubt about it. When I say Jammu and Kashmir, I include PoK and Aksai Chin, both are included in the territorial boundaries of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said. “Ladakh, including Aksai Chin, will be a union territory.”

Responding to a query whether the new provisions would include PoK, Shah said, “We will give our lives for it.”

Aksai Chin is a vast area of Ladakh currently under Chinese occupation.

Hu Shisheng, a leading Chinese expert on India, said one reason behind New Delhi’s decision to divide Kashmir into two union territories was to separate two major disputes – one with Pakistan and another with China.

The director of the Institute of South and Southeast Asian and Oceania Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations said the move was aimed at separating “the two most ticklish disputes in the world from each other” and “to try to settle the Kashmir dispute unilaterally”.

Late on Tuesday, two groups of 85 Indian pilgrims set to travel to Kailash Mansarovar said they were yet to be issued visas by the Chinese embassy. However, a senior Chinese official described the reports as a “rumour”. People familiar with developments said the visas were being processed and the pilgrims would leave once they were granted. </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> India's government has revoked the special status of India-administered Kashmir, in a move that risks fuelling already heightened tensions with neighbouring Pakistan.

Monday's presidential decree revokes Article 370 of India's constitution that guaranteed special rights to the Muslim-majority state, including its right to its own constitution and decision-making process for all matters except defence, communications and foreign affairs.

The legislation introduced alongside the decree still needs the approval of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led parliament.

In the lead-up to its move, India sent thousands of additional troops to the region, imposing a curfew on parts of it, shutting down telecommunications and arresting political leaders.

Both New Delhi and Islamabad claim Kashmir in full, but rule it in part. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two of their three wars over the disputed territory.

The United Nations has urged the two countries to exercise restraint.

Here are all the latest updates:

India warned China that the government's move to strip Kashmir of its autonomy and split the region into two parts was an "internal matter" after Beijing slammed the "unilateral" decision.

 

Beijing was particularly critical of India's decision to turn Kashmir's mostly Buddhist region of Ladakh into an administrative territory directly ruled by New Delhi.

 

"China is always opposed to India's inclusion of the Chinese territory in the western sector of the China-India boundary into its administrative jurisdiction," China's foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.

 

"Recently India has continued to undermine China's territorial sovereignty by unilaterally changing its domestic law. Such practice is unacceptable and will not come into force.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan said his government would challenge the Indian move to change the constitutional status of India-administered Kashmir at the United Nations Security Council, urging the international community to intervene in the crisis or risk regional destabilisation.

"We will raise this at every level, at the United Nations Security Council," said Khan, addressing a joint session of Pakistan's parliament in the capital, Islamabad.

"We are thinking of how we can go to the [International Court of Justice] through the UN Security Council ... we will raise this issue at every forum."

Pakistan army will 'go to any extent' to support Kashmir

Pakistan's army chief said the country's military will "go to any extent" to support people in the contested region after India's move,

"Pakistan Army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end," General Qamar Javed Bajwa said following a meeting with top commanders in Rawalpindi.

"We are prepared and shall go to any extent to fulfil our obligations in this regard," he added, without elaborating further.

The lower house of India's parliament was set to ratify the bill downgrading the governance of the India-administered portion of Kashmir.

Members of the Lok Sabha were debating the "Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Bill" a day after the legislation was introduced alongside the presidential decree revoking Article 370.

The bill downgrades the region from a state into two federally administered union territories: Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh. Jammu and Kashmir would still have its own legislature, while Ladakh would not.

Kashmir on edge as India tightens grip on disputed region

A communications blackout and a security lockdown in Indian-administered Kashmir prompted anger and fear among residents.

Sheikh Mushtaq, 55, said he has lost contact with his daughter who was forced to leave her university in southern Jammu on Monday because of the lockdown. "We are helpless," he said.

The security measures have also hit businesses hard ahead of the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha. </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> 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.
India revokes Jammu and Kashmir's special status amidst increased regional tensions. The Indian government moved additional troops into the sensitive area before banning assemblies, closing schools, restricting tourism and announcing a plan to split the state into two union territories.