SRINAGAR (MEDIA REPORTS )
Indian authorities need more time to restore order in Kashmir, a Supreme Court justice said on Tuesday as a security clampdown entered a ninth day since New Delhi revoked the region’s special status, triggering protests.
The court is hearing an activist’s petition seeking to lift curbs on communications and movement that have disrupted normal life and essential services in the Himalayan region. Dawn com reported.
Telephone lines, internet and television networks have been blocked since August 5 when India withdrew occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s right to frame its own laws and allowed non-residents to buy property there.
Restrictions on movement and assembly, including a ban on gatherings of more than four people, were tightly enforced on Tuesday in the region’s main city, Srinagar.
Menaka Guruswamy, a lawyer for the petitioner, said the court should move to restore hospital services and open schools.
“That is all I ask,” she told the Supreme Court in New Delhi.
Justice Arun Mishra said the government wanted to bring Kashmir back to normal as soon as possible.
“The situation is such that nobody knows what is going on. We should give them time to restore normalcy. Nobody can take one per cent of chance,” Mishra said. “Who will be responsible if something really bad happens tomorrow?”
The petition also seeks the release of detained political leaders in Kashmir, among more than 300 people held to prevent widespread protests.
The court is expected to rule on the petition in a few days.
Tweets blocked
India has raised concerns about some Twitter posts on the situation in occupied Kashmir, where Kashmiri fighters have been fighting Indian rule for nearly three decades.
Police in Kashmir said they asked Twitter to act against a malicious post from one user. Indian media reported on Monday that the government had asked the company to suspend eight accounts accused of spreading false information about Kashmir.
A police officer while speaking to NDTV news network alleged that some of the accounts were run by Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).
A spokesman for the publicity wing of Pakistan’s military and intelligence services said it had no involvement in the accounts.
Madiha Shakil Khan, who operates one of the eight Twitter accounts, said she was not formally contacted by Twitter, but one of her tweets about fighting for Kashmir’s freedom was blocked in India.
Khan, whose account @Red4Kashmir has about 700 followers, lives in Islamabad but hails from Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
“I am tweeting in solidarity with Kashmiris,” Khan, 28, told Reuters by telephone, adding that she had no ties to Pakistan’s ISI.
“Kashmir is being totally censored. They only want the Indian narrative. Every month they suspend me.”
Twitter and India’s federal home ministry did not respond to requests for comment.