Indian government to ease Kashmir restrictions

The Indian government on Friday said it would lift restrictions on people's movements and communication links in Kashmir in the next few days.

The government told India's top court that the situation in disputed Kashmir was being reviewed daily and its unprecedented security restrictions would be removed in the coming days, an attorney said Friday after the court heard challenges to India's actions.

The court decided to give the government more time before ruling on a petition demanding the media restrictions be lifted, attorney Vrinda Grover told reporters.

Grover was representing Kashmir Times editor Anuradha Bhasin, who said she had not been able to publish her newspaper from Srinagar, the main city in Indian-controlled Kashmir, due to the media restrictions.

A news blackout, heavy military presence and a near-constant curfew are some of the restrictions that the portion of Kashmir controlled by India has experienced in the last 12 days.

The lockdown was initially put in place to avoid a violent reaction to New Delhi's decision to downgrade Kashmir's autonomy on August 5.

Read more: Cut-off Kashmir resorts to primitive communication methods

Pakistani soldier killed

Pakistan's military said Friday that Indian firing across the Line of Control killed another one of its soldiers.

In total, six people have been killed in clashes between Pakistani and Indian troops in the past 24 hours.

The latest clash came as the UN Security Council is set to hold closed-door consultations to decide whether to call an emergency meeting on Kashmir at Pakistan's request.

Read more: How far will China go to support Pakistan's position on Kashmir?

Kashmiri journalist missing

The family of a Kashmiri journalist who worked for a regional English daily newspaper said he has been detained by Indian armed forces.

Irfan Amin Malik works Greater Kashmir, one of the largest circulating newspapers in the region.

Malik's father, Mohammed Amin Malik, told The Associated Press news agency that Malik was taken into custody late Wednesday night at his house in Tral in Pulwama, a southern district in Kashmir.

Jammu and Kashmir Principal Secretary Rohit Kansal said he was looking into the case.

law/ (AFP, dpa, Reuters)

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