It is two months now since India's parliament abruptly amended the constitution to downgrade Jammu & Kashmir from a partly autonomous state to a territory administered by the central government. That means it is also two months since the Indian authorities detained some 2,000 prominent Kashmiris—politicians, businessmen, activists, journalists—to prevent them from protesting. They continue to be held without charge, many in unknown places. Meanwhile the 7m-odd residents of the Kashmir valley, the state's main population centre, are under a lockdown of a different sort. Mobile phones and the internet remain cut off; getting around is hard and getting in or out is possible only on the authorities' say-so. In theory the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp) is integrating Kashmir into the rest of India. In practice it has turned the valley into a vast open-air detention centre.
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