Kashmir refugee family says land will never belong to India
Indian authorities imposed a communications blackout on Kashmir.
(Dunya News) – Inside a sparsely-furnished house in a refugee colony near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan, Mehnaz Qureshi awaits news from her family across the border.
Qureshi migrated from Indian-controlled Kashmir to Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan administered Kashmir, along with her husband Uzair Ahmed Ghazali three decades ago.
She said their family belonged to Shopian in occupied Kashmir and they have no idea what is happening to her relatives there due to a curfew imposed over the last few days.
Indian authorities imposed a communications blackout on Kashmir for a fourth straight day on Thursday stopping India’s normally vibrant media from being able to report what is happening in the disputed region after the government revoked its special status.
The authorities have defended the clampdown, which has included the detention of at least 300 politicians and activists, as well as the addition of tens of thousands of soldiers in a region. They say the measures are necessary for the security of the state’s population.
But Ghazali’s sister in law, Nuzhat Qureshi, was not convinced, saying the land of martyrs will never belong to India.
Nearly 7 million people live in the Kashmir Valley, 97% of them Muslim, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Indian troops and armed police deployed to quell an uprising against New Delhi’s rule. About 50,000 people have been killed in the conflict in the last three decades, according to official figures.
