ISLAMABAD, Apr 15 (APP): India has recently released a list of upcoming Group 20 (G-20) meetings it will host in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as this year\u2019s president of the Group in an attempt to show fake normalcy in the Valley.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, by other measures, little has changed. In the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, public anger with New Delhi remains rife. The region remains heavily militarized, with continuing crackdowns on the right to protest and freedom of speech,\u201d writes Michael Kugelman, in Foreign Policy\u2019s weekly South Asia Brief.
\nKugelman is a writer and a director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Center in Washington.<\/p>\n
He said that one Kashmiri contact, who requested anonymity out of concern for their safety, said that India\u2019s G-20 meeting in Srinagar was just an \u201cattempt to fake normalcy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Press restrictions in Indian-administered Kashmir were especially draconian. The space for media has \u201cdrastically eroded\u201d since 2019, the writer said, quoting a Kashmiri journalist. Newspapers are reduced to \u2018extensions of the government\u2019s PR department, the author said.<\/p>\n
A source confirmed that last Thursday marked the beginning of the trial of journalist Fahad Shah, editor of the Kashmir Walla and a previous Foreign Policy contributor.<\/p>\n
Shah was arrested on terrorism charges in February 2022 for publishing what police described as \u201canti-national\u201d material and faced potential life imprisonment if convicted.<\/p>\n
Kugelman further said that Kashmiris were also grappling with electoral uncertainty. Jammu and Kashmir hasn\u2019t had elections since 2014.<\/p>\n
The G-20 meeting will mark the first international event in the disputed region since August 2019, when India revoked IIOJK\u2019s special autonomous status, he added.<\/p>\n
The writer further opined that contrary to the facts, New Delhi also probably wanted to signal that IIOJK was stable, peaceful, and ready to engage with the world after the 2019 decision.<\/p>\n
He further regretted the lack of the world\u2019s focus on the serious issues in IIOJK by saying \u201cWhen it does, it\u2019s increasingly seen through a lens of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD, Apr 15 (APP): India has recently released a list of upcoming Group 20 (G-20) meetings it will host in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as this year\u2019s president of the Group in an attempt to show fake normalcy in the Valley. […]<\/p>\n
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