Indian authorities withdrew police protection for five Kashmiri leaders in occupied Kashmir on Sunday amid mounting fallout from a suicide bombing that killed 41 soldiers in the disputed region. Indian officials said police protection had been withdrawn for Muslim cleric Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and four other leaders.
"We have decided to withdraw the security of Kashmiri leaders in the wake of the attack on security forces," home affairs ministry spokesman A. Bharat Bhushan Babu told AFP. Babu said the decision followed a call by the government for a review of security for those "taking money from Pakistan."
Until Sunday, Indian police had provided security details for the five men out of fears that an attack on Kashmiri political leaders could lead to an outbreak of violence in the Himalayan territory. Mirwaiz - who has received police protection since the 1990 assassination of his religious leader father - heads the Hurriyat Conference, a coalition of local political parties that seeks independence for occupied Kashmir or its merger with neighbouring Pakistan.
A Hurriyat spokesman dismissed the significance of the government's decision.
"It has no bearing, neither can it change the reality of the lingering Kashmir dispute or the situation on the ground," he said. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, which faces a national election in the coming months, has adopted an aggressive posture in Kashmir and shelved dialogue with Pakistan after accusing the previous government of being soft on militants.
It withdrew trade privileges for Pakistan and imposed a 200 percent customs duty on all imports from its neighbour within hours of Thursday's attack, which was claimed by the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) group. Pakistan has denied any involvement in the attack and dismissed Delhi's accusations, calling them "well-rehearsed tactics from (the) Indian playbook after such incidents in the past".
Media reports said about a dozen people, including Kashmiris, had been arrested for making "derogatory" statements about the attack on social media. A round-the-clock curfew remained in place in occupied Jammu city, the Hindu-majority region of Kashmir, after mobs vandalised and torched properties belonging to Kashmiris. Internet services were cut across the state. A shutdown was observed in Muslim-majority districts of occupied Kashmir, including the main city occupied Srinagar, following Thursday's attacks.
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