On Monday, the Indian government announced that Kashmir’s constitutionally-mandated autonomy would be revoked and political rule imposed from Delhi. This northern territory, claimed by both India and Pakistan and ruled in part by each, had been largely autonomous since it agreed to join India in 1947 as its only Muslim-majority state.
Now the government has revoked that autonomy, bypassing the Kashmiri legislature, arresting local politicians, and redrawing the political map. The previous day, the government cut Internet and phone connections to the valley, meaning the rest of the world has been largely blind to what is happening on the ground. Sanna Wani, who managed to catch a flight out on Monday, told TIME about what she saw.
On Monday evening I left Kashmir, my home. I was one of the lucky ones, able to catch a flight out of the valley with my family just after the security services began enforcing the curfew. The Internet and phone networks are down; very little information c..