Clampdown tightened, communications blackout

SRINAGAR, Aug 06 (Agencies): A communications blackout in disputed Kashmir entered a second day on Tuesday, after India snapped television, telephone and internet links to deter protests over its scrapping of special constitutional status for the Himalayan region.
Moving to tighten its grip on India's only Muslim-majority region, the government dropped a constitutional provision for the state of Jammu and Kashmir, which has long been a flashpoint in ties with neighbouring Pakistan, to make its own laws.
Indian national security adviser Ajit Doval said in a report to the home affairs ministry Tuesday after visiting Kashmir that there was "peace and normalcy" and "no agitation" after the announcement, local media reported.
But with mobile and internet shut down and Kashmir virtually cut off from the outside world since the early hours of Monday, there were no independent reports of what was happening on the ground.
Armed police patrolled every few hundred metres in the city, where a ban on public gatherings of more than four people stayed in force on Tuesday. Educational institutions and most shops in residential neighbourhoods were shut.
Security forces fired tear gas and pellets in response to sporadic protests on Monday in Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, said one police official who declined to be identified.
In Kashmir, a court order seen by AFP on Tuesday declared that former chief ministers Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah along with regional party leader Sajad Lone had engaged in activities "likely to cause breach of peace" and lead to a "serious law and order situation".
Initially placed under house arrest at the weekend as security was ramped up in the region, the three were reportedly then taken to an official guest house on Monday-the same day as the announcement in New Delhi that Kashmir's special status under the constitution had been removed.
The court order also said authorities feared the trio could organise a public rally which is currently banned in Kashmir as part of the emergency lockdown.
A backlash against New Delhi's decision was imminent as many in the region saw this week's decision as a breach of trust, Shah Faesal, the leader of a political party, the Jammu and Kashmir People's Movement, warned.
"We might see an eruption when the guard is down," he told Reuters. "People are taking it as an act of humiliation."
Report from Islamabad adds: Pakistan's military "firmly stands" by Kashmiris, the powerful army chief said Tuesday, a day after India stripped the disputed region of its special autonomy in a move set to deepen animosity between the nuclear arch-rivals.
The army's top commanders met in the garrison city of Rawalpindi to discuss the move by India, which is also set to exacerbate the long-running bloody rebellion in Kashmir.
"Pakistan Army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end. We are prepared and shall go to any extent to fulfil our obligations in this regard," General Qamar Javed Bajwa said, in a tweet sent by a military spokesman after the meeting.