ISLAMABAD: Prominent US daily, the New York Times has said Indian military siege in the Occupied Jammu and Kashmir had made life a struggle for Kashmiris.

In a recent article, the paper highlighted the miseries of women in the territory during the lockdown.

The paper narrated incidents of harassment of female journalists at the hands of Indian security forces and sufferings of local women because of lack of medical and transport facilities. 

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It condemned how Kashmiri people especially women were forced to live in miserable circumstances because of Indian government’s August 5 decision of change in special status of Kashmir and the subsequent military clampdown.

The occupied Kashmir remains cut off from the rest of the world since August 5 after the Bhartia Janta Party (BJP) led Indian government scraped Article 370 which stripped Kashmir off its special status as an autonomous state.

The healthcare system has collapsed in Kashmir and women are deprived of basic health facilities like access to sanitary pads. Women there do not have an access to the stores and are thus forced to use old cloth and cotton, causing several dangerous diseases, ranging from skin irritation to cervical cancer.

On Oct 29, UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had urged Indian authorities to unlock situation and fully restore rights currently being denied in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

A statement issued in Geneva by spokesperson of OHCHR Rupert Colville had expressed serious concern over continued human rights violations. “The Supreme Court of India had been slow to deal with petitions concerning habeas corpus, freedom of movement and media restrictions,” the statement had said.

It had said twelve weeks ago, on August 5, the government of India had revoked constitutional provisions granting partial autonomy to the state of Jammu and Kashmir and announced the creation of two separate federally-administered Union Territories, which came into effect on Oct 31.