India revoking the disputed region\u2019s special status is incendiary and wrong. The impact could be felt throughout the region<\/p>\n
The warning signs were there. Hindu nationalists have long desired to end the semi-autonomous status of Kashmir, India\u2019s only Muslim-majority state; the ruling Bharatiya Janata party has long said it would do so. Suspicions rose when thousands more security forces poured in around a week ago, and when pilgrims and tourists were ordered out<\/a>, supposedly due to fears of a terrorist attack.<\/p>\n Yet the revocation and decision to split the state in two \u2013 creating two centrally administered territories in its place \u2013 is shocking and perilous. Several legal experts believe it unconstitutional too. Its abrupt and ruthless manner, with the house arrest of well-known politicians, imposition of a curfew and blackout of the internet and phone lines, will likely lead to protests and inflame the resentment which has underpinned an insurgency which has cost tens of thousands of lives. Though it has ebbed since its horrific peak two decades ago, the violence has crept up again more recently: 2018 was the bloodiest year for a decade. In February, Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammed killed more than 40 soldiers in a suicide car bombing<\/a> \u2013 the deadliest attack on Indian forces there for decades. The youth of the population, in many cases too young to remember the full cost of the conflict in the 1990s, gives cause for worry.<\/p>\n