5,000 hotels locked, 10,000 staffers fired
Srinagar
At least 500 incidents of protest have broken out in Indian-occupied Kashmir since New Delhi stripped the region of its autonomy and imposed a military clampdown more than three weeks ago, a senior government source told AFP on Wednesday.
The Himalayan valley is under a strict lockdown, imposed hours before India’s decision to bring Kashmir under its direct rule. Movement is restricted and phone and internet services have been cut.
In occupied Kashmir more than 5,000 hotels stand locked and at least 10,000 staff members of chain of hotels have been fired in the territory.
The owners of the hotels says that due to the huge losses they have suffered in the past over three weeks, they were not able to pay their loan installments let alone the salary of their employees, Kashmir Media Service reported.
Fayaz Ahmed Lone, a hotel owner at Boulevard in Srinagar said that since August 5, when Narendra Modi-led communal government in New Delhi abrogated Article 370 of the Indian Constitution that granted special status to occupied Kashmir, they had suffered huge losses. “I had 25 staffers including waiters and cooks. I have fired 16 in the first phase and three more in the second phase as I am not able to pay them their monthly salary due to the prevailing situation that has taken a serious toll on the tourism industry,” he said.
The lockdown, as well as the deployment of tens of thousands of extra troops to reinforce the 500,000 based in occupied Kashmir, was ordered amid fears of unrest in a region where an armed rebellion against Indian rule has been waged since 1989. But protests have broken out, including in the main city of Srinagar, with police using pellet guns and tear gas to disperse the crowds.
Nearly 100 civilians have been injured so far, with a further 300 police and more than 100 paramilitary troopers hurt, the official added. “The number of protests could be much higher and bigger without the blockade in force,” the official told AFP, adding that “anger and public defiance is constantly rising”. “Efforts for easing the conditions are made all the time but nothing seems to be working for now. There is nervousness spreading in the security establishment.”
He added that the communications blackout meant even security forces were struggling to obtain information about rural areas. Meanwhile, residents are refusing to resume their normal lives in an act of defiance, an AFP reporter in Srinagar said. While authorities have re-opened schools, students have stayed away. Told to keep open all day or “don’t open at all”, some shops have remained shut.
A separate senior government official told AFP on Wednesday that at least 1,350 protesters — described by police as “stone-pelters” — have been arrested since August 5. The detentions came as the Supreme Court on Wednesday gave the government one week to respond to a legal challenge calling for the communications blackout to be ended to allow for media reporting. —AFP
