Indien / Pakistan

Hundreds of angry demonstrators clashed with government forces Wednesday in Indian-administered Kashmir after soldiers shot dead a young man at a checkpoint, officials and locals said. The man's death came amid heightened tensions in the restive Muslim-majority Himalayan region after New Delhi scrapped its semiautonomous status and imposed a curfew to quell unrest.

Over years of fighting, Riyaz Ahmad Naikoo recruited scores of young Kashmiris in an armed quest for independence from India. His death has set off a fresh wave of unrest.

Indian and Pakistani troops in disputed Kashmir are engaged in their most frequent cross-border fighting of at least two years, official data shows, even as both nuclear-armed rivals battle surging coronavirus outbreaks.

Press freedom in Indian-administered Kashmir is "under a serious threat from security forces", the International Press Institute (IPI) has said in a report published on Tuesday.

Indian authorities on Wednesday temporarily revoked a ban on social media sites and restored full internet access in disputed Kashmir for two weeks, seven months after they stripped the restive region of its statehood and semi-autonomy and enforced a total communications blackout.

A group of foreign diplomats based in New Delhi visited Indian Kashmir on Thursday for the first time after India scrapped the region’s special status five months ago. The visit to the troubled region comes as New Delhi says normalcy is returning to the region, where a strict clampdown imposed in August has been partially eased, but where hundreds still remain in detention and the internet continues to be shut down.

Indian Kashmir officially became a federally ruled territory Thursday, nearly three months after New Delhi stripped its decades-old special status, but peace remains elusive in the Himalayan region that has been wracked by a violent separatist insurgency and is the flashpoint of its dispute with Pakistan.

The UN human rights office says it is extremely concerned that the population of Indian-administered Kashmir continues to be deprived of a wide range of human rights.

At least six civilians and three soldiers are said to have died during cross-border skirmishes between Pakistani and Indian troops late on October 19, reportedly making it one of the deadliest days since New Delhi revoked the special status of Indian-administered Kashmir in August.

Pakistan has ruled out talks with India until India reverses recent controversial actions in the disputed Kashmir territory.