India to bring supplies to Kashmir as Pakistan set to go to UN with support of China amid genocide accusations
- Lockdown in disputed region continues after India stripped it of its constitutional autonomy
Authorities enforcing a strict curfew in Indian-administered Kashmir will bring in trucks of essential supplies for an Islamic festival next week, as the divided Himalayan region remained in a lockdown Saturday following India’s decision to strip it of its constitutional autonomy.
Pakistan said that with the support of China, it will take up India’s unilateral actions in Kashmir with the UN Security Council and may approach the UN Human Rights Commission over what it says is the “genocide” of the Kashmiri people.
Kashmir is claimed in its entirety by both India and Pakistan and is divided between the arch-rivals. Rebels have been fighting New Delhi’s rule for decades in the Indian-controlled portion, and most Kashmiri residents want either independence or a merger with Pakistan.
The indefinite 24-hour curfew was briefly eased on Friday for weekly Muslim prayers in some parts of Srinagar, the region’s main city, but thousands of residents are still forced to stay indoors with shops and most health clinics closed. All communications and the internet remain cut off.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured the people of Jammu and Kashmir, as the state is known, that normalcy would gradually return and that the government was ensuring that the current restrictions do not dampen the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha on Monday.