Prior to the demonstration for Union Home Minister Amit Shah, mobile internet service has been shut off in Jammu, where a senior police officer was killed yesterday night, and the nearby district of Rajouri. The suspension was justified by the Jammu and Kashmir administration as a result of probable ‘misuse by miscreants.’
On the day after Hemant Lohia, the Director General of Police (DGP) in charge of prisons for the UT, was allegedly murdered by his housekeeper, Amit Shah arrived in Jammu late last night. The murder has not yet been connected by the police to terrorism.
However, over the past week, there have been two terrorist attacks in Jammu and Kashmir. Over the last week, paramilitary soldiers carried out random inspections around Jammu and Kashmir as security was tightened for the three-day visit.
Mr. Shah is scheduled to speak at two rallies — one today in Rajouri, in the Jammu region, and the other tomorrow in Baramulla, in north Kashmir — and is anticipated to declare the Pahari population in the union territory to be a Scheduled Tribe (ST).
Other communities have protested, either because they seek ST status for themselves or because they currently have it but don’t like how another community gets a share of the jobs and education quota.
Last night, representatives of the Gujjar and Bakerwal tribes met with Amit Shah, whose ministry oversees the administration while the UT continues to be governed by the federal government as of August 5, 2019.
The visit is important for the BJP as well because the UT could hold elections in the coming months, more than three years after it was split into two UTs (the other being Ladakh), after Article 370, which gave it special status, was repealed.
Mehbooba Mufti, the leader of the People’s Democratic Party and a former chief minister, charged the BJP with dividing communities through the usage of reservations.
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