‘Can China help?’ In Kashmir, anti-India militancy and calls for self-rule continue
- It has been a year since New Delhi tightened control over the region to stamp out insurgency it says is fuelled by Pakistan, which also claims Kashmir
- But despite the abrogation of Article 370, separatist sentiment continues and some locals hope the India-China border conflict will help their cause
Indian troops have killed 118 militants between January and July this year, as many as all of last year, local police said. At least 107 of these were local men and youths and their families were banned from attending their funerals, which have in the past proved to be fertile ground for the recruitment of militants.
Conflict scholar Rao Farman Ali of the Institute of Public Policy Research and Development in South Kashmir said the violence carried on as the “aspirational angle” in the uprising remained strong.
“Militancy is not just about numbers of fatalities and violent incidents, it is a state of mind,” he said. “People still aspire to self-rule in an independent Kashmir and cancelling Article 370 is not going to change that.”
Rao was referring to Article 370 of India’s constitution that had given special rights to the former state of Jammu & Kashmir state, home to 12.5 million people, since it became part of independent India in 1947.
02:29
India revokes Kashmir’s long-held special status, raising opposition from Pakistan and China