WASHINGTON, October 22: The U.S. has raised concerns about the ongoing detention of residents and political leaders in India’s Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir amid months-long restrictions on communication and movement across the region.
President Donald Trump’s administration has “closely monitored” the situation in Kashmir after India changed the state’s legal status to create two new union territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, according to a statement made by Alice G. Wells, acting assistant secretary, Bureau of South and Central Asia on Oct. 22.
“The Department has raised concerns with the Indian government regarding the detentions of local residents and political leaders, including three former Chief Ministers of Jammu and Kashmir,” Wells told the U.S. House Foreign Affairs committee. “We have urged Indian authorities to respect human rights and restore full access to services, including internet and mobile networks.”
The statement is the strongest reaction from the U.S. since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision on Aug. 5 to end seven decades of regional autonomy in Kashmir. Although post-paid telephone services have been restored, an internet blackout in the valley remains. Kashmir has witnessed three decades of separatist violence, supported by neighbor Pakistan, that has killed more than 40,000 people, according to the Indian government. It also remains at the center of disputes between India and Pakistan, with both nations claiming the Himalayan territory.
The U.S. concerns come amid an escalating trade spat between India and Malaysia over Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s comments to the United Nations last month that India had “invaded and occupied” Kashmir. Since then, Indian buyers of palm oil have been turning to Indonesia for supplies because of concerns that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will curb purchases of the vegetable oil from Malaysia.-Agencies
