India's Power Grab In Kashmir Puts The Region At Risk Of Conflict: LA Times

NEW YORK, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Aug, 2019 ) :The Editorial Board of a respected American newspaper has condemned India's annexation of the disputed Kashmir region, a move, it said, has thrown into turmoil the world's most militarized region.

"These unilateral, aggressive and provocative acts by the Indian government do no credit to the world's largest democracy," The Los Angeles Times' board said in an editorial.

"Restricting civil liberties and cutting off communications are hallmarks of thuggery, not freedom. And needlessly exacerbating tensions in this tensest of regions is irresponsible," the newspaper said.

"The region remained majority Muslim � the only area in the country that is � even as Hindu nationalists rose to power in India in recent years", it pointed out.

Noting that under the revoked article 370 of the Indian Constitution, the ban on property ownership by outsiders in Kashmir was lifted, "potentially allowing Hindus to settle and end the Muslim-majority status (the portion of the territory known as Ladakh that borders Tibet is majority Buddhist)".

"Hindu nationalists and Ladakh are cheering the moves, which were championed by recently reelected Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party," LA Times said, while taking note of protests from Pakistan and China.

"Lifting the ban on property ownership by outsiders brings to mind the Israeli government's encouragement of Jewish settlements in territories it seized by war and that are overwhelmingly populated by Palestinian Arabs," the newspaper said.

"The moves are the disheartening, but increasingly common, rejection of ethnic pluralism not just in India but also around the globe, including in the United States.