How India’s Kashmir crackdown provoked fear for region’s future

Curfew and comms blackout led residents to suspect Delhi was about to strip region of autonomy

When Gauhar Siraj woke on Monday, he realised something was about to happen. He'd travelled to Kashmir for a wedding, and tension had been building all week. Then in the morning: "Bam, there's a curfew, internet is cut, telephone lines are snapped, you can't make any kind of communication," he says. Outside, access to main roads in Srinagar, the largest city in Indian-administered Kashmir, had been blocked.

Hours later, the Indian government announced the most radical change any government has suggested for Kashmir since the region joined the Indian union. It would revoke Kashmir's special status and divide the state in two.