Kashmir group calls India’s internet ban 'digital apartheid'

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — A prominent rights group in Indian-administered Kashmir issued a report Tuesday calling India’s communications blackout following the scrapping of the disputed region’s semiautonomy last year “collective punishment” and urged the international community to question New Delhi over what it called “digital apartheid.”

The Jammu-Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society in its 213-page report described “harms, costs and consequences of the digital siege in Jammu-Kashmir from August 2019” when New Delhi stripped the region of its statehood and the semiautonomy that gave its natives special rights over land ownership and jobs.

The move, which set off widespread anger, was accompanied by a security clampdown and communications blackout in the region that left hundreds of thousands jobless, impaired the already feeble healthcare system and paused the school and college education of millions.

“The multi-faceted and targeted denial of digital rights is a systemic form of discrimination, digital repression and collective punishment of the region’s residents, particularly in light of India’s long history of political repression and atrocities,” the report titled “Kashmir’s Internet Siege” said.

Indian officials have repeatedly said the internet ban was aimed at heading off anti-India protests and attacks by rebels who have fought for decades for the region’s independence or unification with Pakistan, which administers another portion of Kashmir. Both countries claim the landlocked Himalayan region in its entirety.

Officials have also argued such security measures were necessary to better integrate the region with India, foster greater economic development and to stop threats from “anti-national elements” and Pakistan.

Many Kashmiris, however, view the move as the beginning...