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Telephone and internet links were cut and public assembly banned
in Kashmir this month just before New Delhi removed the
decades-old autonomy the Muslim-majority territory enjoyed under
the Indian constitution to head off mass protests.
Security forces were deployed outside mosques across Srinagar,
while police vans fitted with speakers asked people not to
venture out, according to two Reuters witnesses.
In some parts of the city, posters appeared calling for protests
and asking preachers in mosques to talk about the current
situation in Kashmir valley.
"People must try to occupy the streets defying curfew," one
poster read.
India has been battling a 30-year revolt in Jammu and Kashmir,
its only Muslim majority state. Critics of the government and
experts have said the decision to revoke its autonomy will cause
further alienation and fuel further the armed campaign.
The lockdown of the Kashmir valley, home to nearly seven million
people, has drawn widespread criticism and on Friday, India's
Supreme Court heard a petition from a newspaper editor seeking
to restore communication links so journalists can work.
Anuradha Bhasin, executive editor of the Kashmir Times, told
reporters outside the court she was unable to reach her staff
because phone lines, both cellular and landlines, and the
internet was down.
Government lawyer Tushar Mehta told the court security forces
were reviewing the situation and planned to lift the curbs over
the "next few days."
Indian channel NDTV, citing unnamed sources, said schools will
likely open on Monday. Hundreds of political leaders and
activists remain under detention, some of them in prisons
outside Jammu and Kashmir.
At least 52 politicians, most of them belonging to the National
Conference and Peoples Democratic Party regional parties, are
currently detained at a hotel on the banks of Srinagar's Dal
lake.
A senior government official said authorities had booked 58
rooms in the hotel. "These leaders are locked inside the hotel
rooms but are allowed to meet at dinner and lunch only in a
dining hall," the official said, who declined to be identified.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has said the
revocation of Kashmir's special status was necessary to ensure
its full integration into India and speed up development.
The move has raised tensions on the heavily militarized border
between India and Pakistan in Kashmir, where Islamabad said
three of its soldiers were killed in cross border firing.
Pakistan summoned India's deputy high commissioner in Islamabad
to condemn what it said were "unprovoked ceasefire violations."
India has accused Pakistan of violating the ceasefire.
(Writing by Sanjeev Miglani and Devjyot Ghoshal; Editing by
Darren Schuettler)
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