CASS Discusses Ongoing Crisis in Jammu and Kashmir Under Indian Siege ‘Chinars in Chains: India’s Siege of Jammu and

Air Marshal Farooq Habib (Retd), Senior Director at CASS, set the stage for the discussion and highlighted that the full integration of IIOJK into the Indian Union has been a central element of the BJP and RSS’s Hindutva agenda. [...] Air Marshal Habib also observed that the Indian Supreme Court supported the government’s actions, which included the enactment of laws aimed at changing the region’s demographics by allowing an influx of non-Kashmiris. [...] In his Keynote Address, the Distinguished Speaker Mr Altaf Hussain Wani, Chairman, Kashmir Institute of International Relations, discussed the considerable socio-political and economic upheavals in Jammu & Kashmir since the revocation of Article 370 and 35A, marking five years of continued distress and despair. [...] Despite the BJP’s carrot and stick policy, it failed to secure a candidate for the three constituencies in the occupied Kashmir Valley, and their proxy candidates were also defeated, indicating that the Kashmiris’ support lies with those who champion their rights. [...] Mr Wani also criticised the severe restrictions on media freedom and the suppression of dissent, which he said significantly curtails the flow of information and silences human rights defenders in the region.