NEW DELHI: Authorities on Sunday defended blocking opposition Indian politicians from visiting Muslim-majority Kashmir, saying it was to “avoid controversy” weeks after stripping the restive region of its autonomy and imposing a major clampdown.
India’s Hindu-nationalist government has been criticized by the main opposition Congress party over the contentious move on August 5 that brings Kashmir — which has waged an armed rebellion against Indian control since 1989 — under its direct rule.
The region remains under strict lockdown with movement limited and many phone and Internet services cut, although authorities say they have been easing restrictions gradually.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, still a key figure in India as a scion of the powerful Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, was earlier invited by local governor Satya Pal Malik to visit Kashmir.
But a video released by Congress showed Gandhi questioning officials about why he was stopped from entering Kashmir’s main city of Srinagar at the airport on Saturday.
“The governor has said I’m invited. He has invited me so I have come but you’re saying I can’t go,” he said.
“And the government is saying everything is OK, everything is normal. So if everything is normal, why are we not allowed out? It is a bit surprising.”
Regional police chief Dilbagh Singh told AFP police supported the decision.
“In an environment that is getting to normalcy, we didn’t want any controversial statement from anyone. That’s why they were asked to return from the airport itself,” Singh said.
Malik told the ANI news agency he invited Gandhi out of goodwill but that he then politicized the issue.
The controversy came as key separatist group Hurriyat Conference, a coalition of local political parties, released its first official comments since the clampdown and called for locals to “resist at this critical juncture” New Delhi’s move.
“Each and every person must face the naked Indian brutality with courage ... People should organize peaceful protests and demonstrations in their areas of residence,” top separatist leader Syed Ali Geelani said in a statement obtained by AFP.
The Hurriyat Conference, which supports Kashmir’s right to choose whether it wants to be part of India or Pakistan, added that Pakistan and the wider Muslim community should “come forward to ... help the besieged people.”
The call came as India’s home affairs ministry refuted a report by India’s News18 television on Sunday that the region was running out of lifesaving medicines, saying supplies were “slightly higher than the monthly average.”
India defends blocking politicians from visiting Kashmir
India defends blocking politicians from visiting Kashmir
- If everything is normal, asks opposition’s Rahul Gandhi, why are Congress leaders not allowed in Jammu and Kashmir
- Hurriyat Conference has released its first official comment since the clampdown, calling for locals to resist New Delhi’s move
Police arrest 49 suspected militants in Pakistan’s Punjab in a month
- The development follows a steep rise in militancy-related deaths in Pakistan last year
- Authorities have lodged cases against the arrested suspects affiliated with banned outfits
ISLAMABAD: The counter-terrorism department (CTD) of Punjab police has arrested 49 militants in different areas of Pakistan’s most populous province in a month and foiled a major terror plan, the CTD said on Saturday.
Pakistan is currently facing an uptick in militant attacks, mainly by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in its northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, which borders Punjab.
The attacks in KP have forced authorities in Punjab to heighten security and take pre-emptive measures in view of potential spillover of militants into the country’s most populous province.
CTD officials arrested these militants in 425 intelligence-based operations and seized weapons, explosives and other prohibited materials from the arrestees, according to a CTD spokesperson.
“Forty-four cases have been registered against the arrested terrorists and further investigation is being carried out,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
The development comes a steep rise in militancy-related deaths in Pakistan in 2025. According to statistics released by the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS) last month, combat-related deaths in 2025 rose 73 percent to 3,387. These included 2,115 militants, 664 security forces personnel, 580 civilians and 28 members of pro-government peace committees, the think tank said.
CTD conducted 6,131 combing operations in the province and arrested 599 suspects, according to the statement. Around 570 police reports were registered against these suspects, which led to 477 recoveries.
In Nov., the Punjab government had launched the country’s “first” mobile counterterrorism unit to monitor complex security operations in real time, while in Sept. the province announced the arrest of 90 suspected militants in a three-month counter-terrorism sweep.
Pakistan has struggled to contain the surging in militancy in KP since a fragile truce between the Pakistani Taliban and Islamabad broke down in Nov. 2022. The country faces another decades-long insurgency by Baloch separatists in its southwestern Balochistan province.
Islamabad has frequently accused Afghanistan of allowing the use of its soil and India of backing militant groups for attacks against Pakistan. Kabul and New Delhi deny the allegation.
