South Asia Human Rights Journalist Association

Srinagar, October 09, 2019: The ongoing lockdown has cost the region’s economy more than $1 billion in two months, BBC said quoting industry experts.  Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimates the shutdown has already cost the region more than $1.4bn (£1.13bn), and thousands of jobs have been lost and according to Shiekh Ashiq, president of the chamber of industry ,"More than 50,000 jobs have been lost in the carpet industry alone," What's more, the streets are deserted and devoid of the tourist business which had supported up to 700,000 people. 
The BBC in its report on the prevailing situation in the occupied territory says, “Two months on, the situation is far from normal. Internet and mobile phone connections remain suspended, public transport is not easily available, and most businesses are shut …………. There is also a shortage of skilled labour, as some 400,000 migrants have left since the lockdown began.”

New Dehli, 9 2019 : The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged India to release political prisoners, end crackdown operations and restore internet and mobile communication in occupied Kashmir. It has been over two months since the Indian government revoked constitutional autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir and split the state into two centrally administered territories and yet abusive restrictions, including a lockdown on internet and mobile phone services, remain, the HRW

Srinagar, 06 Oct 2019 : The lockdown in Kashmir has reached over 64 days with the abrogation of Article 370, which gave special powers to the Jammu and Kashmir, there are several reports of mass detentions, torture and molestation by the Indian forces . There are stories of molestation and eve teasing by Indian forces narrated by women. Some of them said they were filmed as they walked down the streets by the men in uniform, while many others reported the use of cuss words and threats of sexual assault.

 
October 06, 201 9 : A US Senate panel has attached an amendment to a finance bill that requires India to end its lockdown and curfew in occupied Kashmir and fully restore communications links to the Kashmir valley.  
The amendment, attached to the Foreign Appropriations Act for 2020, was moved in the Senate Appropriations Committee, and is seen as the first step towards US legislative action against India over its Aug 5 annexation of the occupied lands.

Srinagar,  Oct 1, 2019:In Sumbal in Bandipora, North Kashmir . grandson of Zuna Begum, named Mohsin Shahnawaz Ganai, the only one in the family who earned a living as a quarry worker, is no longer at home. Zuna sits in a corner of the staircase, weeping. “I have no one. Shahnawaz used to say, ‘Why do you cry? 

AP Oct 4, 2019 :The lockdown and communications blackout in occupied Kashmir entered its 61st day on Friday. Frustration, anger and fear have been growing in occupied Kashmir since August 5, when the Hindu nationalist-led government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi stripped the region of its semi-autonomous status and imposed a curfew and a communications blackout.

By Niha Masih, Joanna Slater andShams Irfan Oct. 1, 2019PARIGAM,: It was near midnight when the soldiers came for Yassin Bhat.  The 25-year-old pulled on some clothes and stepped into the darkness. Nearby, on the main road, he saw dozens of Indian army soldiers, Bhat said. One asked him what he thought about India’s move the day before to revoke Kashmir’s autonomy. Terrified, Bhat replied that it was a good step.  The officer told him not to lie, Bhat recalled, and ordered him to take off his clothes in the middle of the road.
 Then, he said, the abuse began. Several soldiers held him down while others used thick cables to whip his back and legs. The soldiers then placed on his chest and genitals electrical wires connected to a battery. He remembers being immobilized as the current surged through his body.
 

New Delhi, September 25, 2019: Leaders of Indian women’s organisations National Federation of Indian Women’s (NFIW)who visited occupied Kashmir earlier this month released a fact-finding report, detailing appalling conditions in the Muslim-majority valley. The five women leaders — including Dr Syeda Hameed of the Muslim Women’s Forum, Pragatisheel Mahila Samiti's Poonam Kaushik, and Annie Raja, Kawaljeet Kaur, and Pankhuri Zaheer from the National Federation of Indian Women's (NFIW) — visited occupied Kashmir from September 17-21, 2019. 
Speaking at the Delhi Press Club, the five brave women shared their experiences and observations with the media and concerned citizens after visiting Kashmir under lockdown for the past 51 days. “When we reached there, it was like walking into a cloud of depression,” Dr Syeda Hameed and Annie Raja explained, terming their findings an eyewitness account. “By many verified accounts, we are talking about almost 13,000 young people having disappeared in the past 51 days,” they said, noting that they visited Srinagar and several villages in the districts of Shopian, Pulwama, and Bandipora.The report details the grief of one of the many people the women spoke to and notes that the Indian Army “pounces on young boys; it seems they hate their very sight. When fathers go to rescue their children they are made to deposit money, anywhere between 20,000 to 60,000.” 

Washington, September 17, 2019 : The Amnesty International has vowed that it would not be silenced on raising concerns about the situation in occupied Kashmir despite facing intimidation by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi´s government.Amnesty International Secretary-General, Kumi Naidoo, in a media interview in Washington said that the Modi government has made a very big attempt to crush Amnesty in India, stressing, “On the Kashmir question, on various human rights questions in India itself, we are not intimidated”. 
 

Srinagar, September 17,2019:The Indian soldiers came after midnight, Abid Khan says, his hands trembling, one of around two dozen young men in just one part of Kashmir who say they have been tortured by the Indian army.  Sajjad Hyder Khan, a local official in Pinjoora village, told media that he had seen a list of 1,800 people detained by police and troops from Shopian alone. The residents say the troops are committing such inhuman acts with an aim to create a climate of fear in the territory.   Screams of people are often heard from Indian army camps at night, as troops pick up youth from Shopian villages and torture them at their camps ‘to make them an example for other villagers’.