A year after India revoked the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir, people in the region are still living under curfews, lockdowns and communications restrictions. New Delhi says the measures are necessary to maintain security in the restive region.

However, many Kashmiris consider the policy to be part of a systematic campaign of oppression from India's Hindu nationalist government.

Read more:Kashmir: The world's most dangerous conflict

Last year on August 5, New Delhi decided to abrogate Article 370 of the Indian constitution which granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir downgraded the state into two federally governed territories.

The move sparked widespread unrest, prompting Indian security forces to enforce strict curfews and curtail public movement.

Waheed Ahmad Para, a young politician with Kashmir's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), remembers how he was preemptively detained when the announcement was made last year.

Para was giving an interview in a news studio in the regional capital, Srinagar, when the police raided the studio and shut down the broadcast.

The PDP party opposed dissolving the region's special status, and Para was rounded up along with 30 other politicians and detained at a hotel.

'Political paralysis'

Para's detention would last six months. It was part of a massive crackdown on political parties, separatist groups and civil society actors all of whom opposed New Delhi's move.

Among the detainees were former Jammu and Kashmir chief ministers, Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah.

The detentions were carried out under India'sPublicSafety Act (PSA), which allows detention for up to a year without bail or trial.

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TheConcerned Citizens Group,an activist organization led by former Indian Finance MinisterYashwant Sinha, has demanded the release of those who were detained under the PSA.

"We findthat New Delhi's actions haveled to shock, trauma and humiliationamong locals [in Kashmir].Simmeringangerovertheir helplessness persists,"Sinhatold DW.

Speaking to DW, Para described his detention as "a personal humiliation," and said the Indian government's oppression of local leaders resulted in a "political paralysis" in the region.

"A lot is happening and we are unable to do anything, speak up or resist," he said in Srinagar, adding that India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not have a lot of political support in Kashmir.

'Broken' economy

The status of Kashmir has been a key dispute between Pakistan and India since the two split after the end of British colonial rule. They each control part of Kashmir and have fought two wars over their rival claims.

Separatist militants launched a full-blown revolt against New Delhi in India-administered Kashmir in 1989, a conflict that has left tens of thousands dead and prompted the deployment of hundreds of thousands of Indian troops.

On February 27, Pakistan's military said that it had shot down two Indian fighter jets over disputed Kashmir. A Pakistani military spokesman said the jets were shot down after they'd entered Pakistani airspace. It is the first time in history that two nuclear-armed powers have conducted air strikes against each other.

The Pakistani military has released this image to show that Indian warplanes struck inside Pakistani territory for the first time since the countries went to war in 1971. India said the air strike was in response to a recent suicide attack on Indian troops based in Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan said there were no casualties and that its airforce repelled India's aircraft.

Some Indian civil society members believe New Delhi cannot exonerate itself from responsibility by accusing Islamabad of creating unrest in the Kashmir valley. A number of rights organizations demand that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government reduce the number of troops in Kashmir and let the people decide their fate.

On February 14, at least 41 Indian paramilitary police were killed in a suicide bombing near the capital of India-administered Kashmir. The Pakistan-based Jihadi group, Jaish-e-Mohammad, claimed responsibility. The attack, the worst on Indian troops since the insurgency in Kashmir began in 1989, spiked tensions and triggered fears of an armed confrontation between the two nuclear-armed powers.

Since 1989, Muslim insurgents have been fighting Indian forces in the Indian-administered part of Kashmir - a region of 12 million people, about 70 percent of whom are Muslim. India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence in 1947 over Kashmir, which they both claim in full but rule in part.

In October 2016, the Indian military has launched an offensive against armed rebels in Kashmir, surrounding at least 20 villages in Shopian district. New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing the militants, who cross over the Pakistani-Indian "Line of Control" and launch attacks on India's paramilitary forces.

The security situation in the Indian part of Kashmir deteriorated after the killing of Burhan Wani, a young separatist leader, in July 2016. Protests against Indian rule and clashes between separatists and soldiers have claimed hundreds of lives since then.

In September 2016, Islamist militants killed at least 17 Indian soldiers and wounded 30 in India-administered Kashmir. The Indian army said the rebels had infiltrated the Indian part of Kashmir from Pakistan, with initial investigations suggesting that the militants belonged to the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad group, which has been active in Kashmir for over a decade.

Indian authorities banned a number of social media websites in Kashmir after video clips showing troops committing grave human rights violations went viral on the Internet. One such video that showed a Kashmiri protester tied to an Indian army jeep apparently as a human shield generated outrage on social media.

Those in favor of an independent Kashmir want Pakistan and India to step aside and let the Kashmiri people decide their future. "It is time India and Pakistan announce the timetable for withdrawal of their forces from the portions they control and hold an internationally supervised referendum," Toqeer Gilani, the president of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front in Pakistani Kashmir, told DW.

But most Kashmir observers don't see it happening in the near future. They say that while the Indian strategy to deal strictly with militants and separatists in Kashmir has partly worked out, sooner or later New Delhi will have to find a political solution to the crisis. Secession, they say, does not stand a chance.

Author: Shamil Shams

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government insists that the revocation of the special status was needed to halt the conflict and boost economic development in Kashmir.

The impact of the government's actions over the past year on Kashmir's already fragile economy has been enormous, shuttering shops and small businesses that then took another hit as the coronavirus hit India hard and triggered a nationwide lockdown.

Despite New Delhi's claims that economic progress has been made in Kashmir over the past year, Sheikh Ashiq, the president of Kashmir's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told DW that the region has faced losses worth over 4.5 billion ($5.3 billion) over the past year.

"These are our rough estimates as we are coming with a proper report soon. One lockdown after another has left nearly 500,000 people unemployed, which is our biggest concern. We are at a point where we have no financial capacity now," Sheikh said, adding the economic crisis is unprecedented.

"There has been unrest in the past as well but this situation is peculiar. We have reached a point where we are completely broken," he said.

PDP's Para shares a similar view. "For the past year there has been no development, no economic activity, no tourism," he said. "You can never win a population by detaining and defeating them."

The Concerned Citizens Group hasdemanded that Kashmiri farmers and businessmen be compensated for their economic losses,which thegroup attributes to the upheaval caused by the region losing its special status.

Fragile security

Over the past year, PM Modi's government has also brought in a slew of new laws that locals say are aimed at shifting the demographics in the Muslim-majority region.

The military, meanwhile, has intensified its counter-insurgency operations in recent months. Clashes in the first half of the year have left 229 dead, including 32 civilians, reports AFP news agency. The 283 people killed in all of 2019 was the highest toll for a decade.

Still, a senior official in India's Border Security Force, who wished to remain anonymous, told DW that the security situation in the region is "better than ever," citing a drop in the local youth joining pro-separatist extremist groups.

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Kashmir: A year of lockdown and lost autonomy - DW (English)