Shops shuttered, streets deserted as IOJ&K split into two union territories
SRINAGAR (Reuters) - Shops and offices were shut in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) on Thursday and the streets largely deserted as the Indian authorities formally revoked the restive state’s constitutional autonomy and split it into two union territories.
Just after midnight on Wednesday, the Indian government’s orders went into effect, dividing up the old state of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories - one Jammu and Kashmir, and the other the Buddhist-dominated enclave of Ladakh.
Both will be directly ruled by Delhi, and new lieutenant governors were sworn in at a high-security governor’s premises later on Thursday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision in August to change Kashmir’s status and tighten its grip over a region has stoked anger and resentment while a three-decade armed revolt rages.
Pakistan, which claims the whole of Kashmir, has condemned the move. Its ally China, which is locked in a separate decades-old dispute with India over the part of Kashmir called Ladakh, also slammed India for unilaterally changing its status.
India is hoping that by opening up property rights in Kashmir to people from outside the region it can reignite economic growth, create jobs and turn the focus away from the militancy in which more than 40,000 people have died.
It blames Pakistan for keeping the revolt alive, allegations that the nuclear-armed neighbour denies. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Kashmir was a dispute left from history and it should be peacefully resolved.
“The Indian government officially announced the establishment of so called Jammu Kashmir territory and Ladakh Union territory which included some of China’s territory into its administrative jurisdiction,” Geng said at a news briefing.
“China deplores and firmly opposed that. India unilaterally changes its domestic law and administrative divisions, challenging China’s sovereignty and interests. This is awful and void, and this is not effective in any way and will not change the fact that the area is under China’s actual control.”
India and China fought a war in 1962 and since then have been unable to resolve their border dispute.