Anti-government protests have escalated again in Indian-administered Kashmir, following violent clashes earlier this month. On April 9, an election was held for a parliamentary seat, but voter turnout was only 7 percent. Demonstrators who had gathered around polling places clashed with riot police, and were met with a violent response, leaving at least eight dead. Since then, a new cycle of protests and violent crackdowns—followed by responses to those crackdowns—has begun, leaving dozens dead and more injured. In Kashmir, the Indian government has been battling armed rebels in a low-level conflict for decades, while working against separatists, anti-India demonstrations, an increasingly radicalizing population, and more. Recent clashes with students in the streets of Srinagar resulted in brutal acts carried out by the Indian security forces being caught on video and spread via social media. Today, the government responded by blocking 16 social media sites in the region, including Facebook and Twitter.
Unrest in Kashmir Surges Once More
-
Kashmiri students clash with Indian government forces near a college in central Srinagar's Lal Chowk on April 17, 2017. Violence erupted in Srinagar as students staged a protest after more than 60 students were injured in clashes with Indian security forces at a college in the district of Pulawama last week. #
Tauseef Mustafa / AFP / Getty -
-
A Kashmiri Muslim protester holds stones in his hands before throwing them at Indian government forces during an anti-India protest on March 3, 2017 in Srinagar. Indian government forces used live rounds, pellets, acrid teargas shells and rubber bullets to disperse scores of Kashmiri Muslim protesters who were throwing stones at Indian forces during an anti Indian protest in the Old City of Srinagar, after Friday prayers. #
Yawar Nazir / Getty -
Kashmiri students throw stones and bricks at Indian government forces during a protest against the attack by Indian government forces on students, on April 24, 2017, in Srinagar. Violence erupted after the students of Shri Pratap Higher Secondary school marched and staged a protest in the city's commercial hub. The authorities earlier in the day had ordered all colleges and higher secondary schools open. Students protested in Srinagar after a police raid in a college in southern Pulwama town last week, in which at least 50 students were injured. The protests soon spread in the city center, leading to pitched battles between rock-throwing students and government forces using water canons, rubber bullets, and tear gas to disperse the students. #
Yawar Nazir / Getty -
A Kashmiri woman shouts pro-freedom slogans during the funeral of Umer Farooq, a Kashmiri civilian who was killed at Baroosa village, 34 Kilometers (21 miles) northeast of Srinagar on April 10, 2017. Government forces opened fire on Sunday on crowds of people who attacked polling stations during a by-election for a vacant seat in India's Parliament, killing eight people. #
Mukhtar Khan / AP -
-
An Indian police officer fires a teargas shell towards Kashmiri Muslim protesters during an anti-India protest on March 3, 2017 in Srinagar. Indian government forces used live rounds, pellets, acrid teargas shells and rubber bullets to disperse scores of Kashmiri Muslim protesters who were throwing stones at Indian forces during an anti Indian protest in the Old City of Srinagar, after Friday prayers. #
Yawar Nazir / Getty -
An injured Kashmiri student is examined by medical staff in a ward at a hospital in Srinagar on April 15, 2017, after clashes erupted between students and security personnel at Pulwama. According to local reports some 54 students were injured in the clashes in the town to the south of Srinagar when security personnel fired teargas and pellets to disperse a crowd outside Degree College. #
Tauseef Mustafa / AFP / Getty -
-
Kashmiri Muslim women gather to attend the funeral ceremony of Amir Nazir, a 15 year old who was killed by Indian government forces during clashes in a gun battle, on March 9, 2017 in Begumbagh, south of Srinagar. Two civilians including a teenager were killed in clashes with Indian government forces when they tried to save the local rebels who were engaged in a gun battle with forces the rebels were also killed in the gun battle later in the day, in the Pulwom district of south Kashmir. #
Yawar Nazir / Getty -
Smoke rises as munitions fired by Indian army soldiers hit a house during a gun battle in Chadoora town, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of Srinagar on March 28, 2017. The gun battle began after police and soldiers cordoned off the southern town of Chadoora following a tip that at least one militant was hiding in a house, said Inspector-General Syed Javaid Mujtaba Gillani. As the fighting raged, hundreds of residents chanting anti-India slogans marched near the area in an attempt to help the trapped rebel escape. #
Dar Yasin / AP -
-
Kashmiri protesters throw rocks at Indian security officers during a protest on the outskirts of Srinagar on March 31, 2017. Government forces in Indian portion of Kashmir fired tear gas and pellet guns to stop protest marches called by separatist leaders against the killing of three civilians during anti-India protests near the site of a gun battle. #
Dar Yasin / AP -
In this March 29, 2017, photo, Indian paramilitary soldiers force a Kashmiri child to perform sit-ups while holding his ear lobes, a common elementary school punishment in India, before letting him go during a strike in Srinagar, Indian-controlled Kashmir. Seeing Kashmiri residents doing calisthenics on the side of the road was once common in the 1990s, as government forces sought to humiliate people as a way of dissuading any support for armed rebels fighting against Indian rule in the disputed Himalayan territory. As the rebellion was crushed, Indian soldiers mostly stopped using public sit-ups as a form of punishment. #
Dar Yasin / AP -
A burqa-clad Kashmiri school girl throws stones at Indian paramilitary soldiers during a protest in Srinagar on April 20, 2017. Government forces in Indian-controlled Kashmir fired tear gas to stop student demonstrations as sporadic protests by students continued even as authorities closed colleges and universities in the restive region. The students have been protesting since Monday against a police raid in a college in southern Pulwama town on Saturday in which at least 50 students were injured. #
Dar Yasin / AP -
-
Associated Press photographer Dar Yasin helps Khushboo Jan, 18, after she was injured during clashes between Kashmir students and India security forces in Srinagar on April 20, 2017. "It was an instant decision, and I didn't think twice,” Dar Yasin said. He explained that he was closest to the woman and so best able to help. “I gave my camera to a colleague... I took the injured girl in my arms.” #
Faisal Khan / AP -
Injured Kashmiri student Khushboo Jan, 18, meets with the Associated Press at her residence in Srinagar on April 23, 2017. Associated Press photographer Dar Yasin was documenting a protest by dozens of Kashmiri students confronting armed Indian government forces wearing riot gear. After Khushboo was hit in the head and began bleeding profusely, the Associated Press photographer put down his camera and rushed in to help her. #
Mukhtar Khan / AP -
-
Recruits from the Indian Border Security Force take part in a passing out parade at BSF headquarter in Srinagar on March 8, 2017. Some 126 new recruits were inducted into the force which is fighting the insurgency in Kashmir, which has been divided between India and Pakistan since they gained independence from Britain in 1947. #
Tauseef Mustafa / AFP / Getty -
A Kashmiri Muslim woman shows her ink-marked finger after casting her vote during the elections of the lower house of the Indian parliament on April 9, 2017 in Srinagar, Indian-administered Kashmir, India. Widespread clashes took place in three districts of Kashmir, which are part of the Srinagar constituency of the lower house of Indian parliament, after a poll boycott was called for by pro-freedom Kashmir resistance groups in the disputed territory. At least five youths including a teen were shot dead by Indian government forces and several others were wounded in sporadic action against the dissenters. A large number of Indian government forces were deployed on the streets by the Indian authorities in Kashmir to thwart anti-India protest on the occasion of elections in Srinagar. #
Yawar Nazir / Getty -
An Indian paramilitary trooper stands guard in Srinagar during a one-day strike called by Kashmiri separatists in Srinagar on April 2, 2017. Separatists called for a complete shutdown on against the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Jammu and Kashmir to inaugurate the Chenani-Nashri tunnel, the longest in the country. #
Tauseef Mustafa / AFP / Getty -
-
Kashmiri students throw stones and bricks at Indian government forces during a protest against the attack by Indian government forces on students, on April 24, 2017, in Srinagar. #
Yawar Nazir / Getty -
-
Indian policemen are silhouetted as tear gas smoke engulfs a Kashmiri protester in Srinagar on February 10, 2017. Indian forces fired tear gas shells to prevent a protest march to the disputed Himalayan region's office of United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) called by separatist leaders demanding the mortal remains of Maqbool Bhat, founder of Jammu Kashmir Libration Front (JKLF) and Afzal Guru, a Kashmiri man executed after being convicted of attacking the Indian Parliament. #
Dar Yasin / AP -
-
Kashmiri Muslims stand near the bullet-riddled wall of a war-ravaged residential house after a gun battle between Indian government forces and Kashmiri rebels on March 9, 2017 in Padgampoor, south of Srinagar. Two civilians were killed in clashes with Indian government forces when they tried to save the local rebels who were engaged in a gun battle. The rebels were also killed in later in the day, in the Pulwom district of south Kashmir. #
Yawar Nazir / Getty -
An Indian policeman places dirt on a road, covering bloodstains at the scene after suspected rebels attacked Indian government forces on the Jammu-Srinagar highway, on the outskirts of Srinagar, on April 3, 2017. Six Indian soldiers and a civilian were injured in the incident. #
Mukhtar Khan / AP -
-
Kashmiri villagers offer prayers during the funeral of Umer Farooq, a Kashmiri civilian who was killed at Baroosa village in Indian-controlled Kashmir, on April 10, 2017. Government forces opened fire on Sunday on crowds of people who attacked polling stations during a by-election for a vacant seat in India's Parliament, killing eight people. #
Mukhtar Khan / AP -
Kashmiri villagers bury the body of Mohammad Ayoub Wani, a civilian killed in a grenade blast, in Goosu, about 40 Kilometers (25 miles) south of Srinagar, on March 3, 2017. Wani was killed and two others, including a soldier, were wounded on Friday after suspected militants hurled a grenade at paramilitary soldiers in a southern town in Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said. #
Dar Yasin / AP -
-
A senior Indian police officer lays a wreath on a coffin containing the body of his colleague Manzoor Ahmad Naik at the police headquarters of Srinagar, on March 5, 2017. Anti-India protests erupted in Indian-controlled Kashmir following a fierce gun battle in which two rebels and the counterinsurgency policeman were killed, police said. #
Mukhtar Khan / AP -
Indian policemen pay homage during the wreath-laying ceremony of their colleague Shams-ud-din at the police headquarters in Srinagar on April 3, 2017. A policeman was killed and ten others were wounded in a grenade attack in Nowhatta area of downtown in Srinagar on Sunday evening. #
Mukhtar Khan / AP -
-
Kashmiri students browse the internet on their mobile phones as they sits inside a restaurant in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, on April 26, 2017. On Wednesday, authorities ordered internet service providers to block 16 social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter, and popular online chat applications for one month "in the interest of maintenance of public order." The government has often halted internet service in the region in the past in an attempt to prevent anti-India demonstrations from forming. But this is the first time authorities have shut down social media following the circulation of videos of alleged abuse by Indian soldiers. #
Dar Yasin / AP
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.