NARENDRA MODI'S FIRST VISIT TO KASHMIR AS PM TRIGGERS SHUTDOWN

[Schools and businesses close in Srinagar in protest against plans to curb region's autonomy and crackdown on separatists]

A Kashmiri family walks past Indian paramilitary troopers in Srinagar amid

restrictions on civilians' movements ahead of Narendra Modi's visit.

Photograph: Tauseef Mustafa/AFP/Getty Images

India's Narendra Modi faced a hostile welcome on Friday during his first visit as prime minister to Kashmir, where he has sparked anger over apparent plans to curb the region's autonomy.

Schools, shops and other businesses were mostly closed in the main city of Srinagar in protest at Modi's visit, while separatist leaders were put under house arrest in a security crackdown ahead of his arrival.

Restrictions were also imposed on civilians' movements in parts of the city's volatile old town, a senior police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Modi, a hardline Hindu nationalist, travelled to Katra town, 168 miles (270km) from Srinagar, where he opened a railway line linking a popular Hindu shrine in the Muslim-majority state with India's vast railway network.

"This facility is not just meant for the people of the state but for the millions of Indians who want to travel to Mata Vaishnodevi [shrine]," Modi said after flagging off the first train on the Udhampur-Katra line.

Modi said the new railway would become "the fountainhead of development" for the restive Himalayan region, while also dedicating the new train to the Hindu pilgrims who travel to the shrine every year.

"My aim is to win the hearts of the people of the state," Modi added.

The line is part of an ambitious project to connect the tense Kashmir valley, where a separatist movement opposed to Indian rule is centred, with the rest of the country's railway network sometime in 2017.

The trip by Modi, whose party secured a landslide win in the general elections in May, has provoked a sharp reaction from influential separatist groups which called the general strike.

During election campaigning, Modi had argued for "a discussion" about article 370 of the Indian constitution, which specifies that laws passed by the national parliament are not applied to Kashmir unless approved by the local legislature.

In May, soon after Modi took office, junior minister Jitendra Singh said the federal government had begun the process of abrogating the constitutional provision that gives India's only Muslim-majority state its special status.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan. Both claim the region in full but administer separate partial areas. The neighbours have fought two of their three wars over its control.

Since 1989, an armed rebellion against Indian rule by about a dozen rebel groups seeking independence for Kashmir or a merger of the territory with Pakistan has left tens of thousands dead.

The dispute with Pakistan and the insurgency has made Indian Kashmir one of the most heavily militarised zones in the world, where many are subject to tight security restrictions and complain of human rights abuses.

"We have no personal enmity with him [Modi]. But he is visiting as the prime minister of a country which has forcibly enslaved us and whose army kills our people systematically," senior separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani said in a statement on Tuesday.

Modi was set to meet with top generals at army headquarters in Srinagar, where hundreds of police and paramilitary officers were patrolling the city's mainly deserted streets.

Modi was also expected to travel to the town of Uri close to the disputed border with Pakistan to inaugurate a hydro-power project on Friday.

@ The Guardian

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PAKISTANI TV JOURNALIST SUFFERS THIRD BOMB ATTACK IN FOUR MONTHS

[The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists accused the authorities of failing to protect Baghwan despite it having been targeted twice before. It said: "The attack has further increased the sense of insecurity among journalists as its shows that police are not taking the attacks on media seriously."]

A Pakistani journalist escaped unhurt when a bomb exploded outside their home in Peshawar on Wednesday (2 July). It was the third attack on Jamshed Baghwan, the bureau chief of Express News, in four months.

He saw men who arrived on a motorcycle planting the bomb, enabling him and his wife enough time to take cover before the bomb went off.

A bomb was planted at his home in March this year, which was defused. A month later, masked men hurled a hand grenade at his house.

It was the fourth attack this year on a journalist associated with Express News, an Urdu-language TV news channel.

In January, three employees were shot dead in Karachi in an attack on a van. In March, presenter Raza Rumi was attacked in Lahore and his driver was killed.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists accused the authorities of failing to protect Baghwan despite it having been targeted twice before. It said: "The attack has further increased the sense of insecurity among journalists as its shows that police are not taking the attacks on media seriously."

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) also condemned the attack, saying it was deeply concerned by "the deteriorating security situation for journalists in Pakistan."

The IFJ said: Pakistan's journalists are confronted by a horrific situation: a disturbing spike in violent attacks on individual journalists as well as the ruthless targeting of specific news outlets. Decisive action must be taken to improve their security."

Source: Rising Kashmir


@ The Guardian