WASHINGTON: The voice of the Kashmiri people, who have been living under siege since Aug 5 when India forcibly merged their land with the union, is now resonating in the US Congress where key lawmakers are urging New Delhi to end the occupation and allow its residents to speak.

Congressman Adam Smith, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, called India’s US ambassador on Tuesday and told him that he was “continuing to monitor the situation regarding the government of India’s decision to revoke the special status” of occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

“There are legitimate concerns about the ongoing communications blackouts, increased militarisation of the region, and enforcement of curfews,” he told the Indian envoy. Mr Smith, a Democrat from Washington state, said some of his constituents were from occupied Jammu and Kashmir and had also visited the area after Aug 5.

“They saw a region under siege with its residents isolated, without an ability to communicate at all outside of the region,” he said.

Mr Smith reminded India that “recognition for the potential disparate impact of this decision on the region’s Muslim population and other minority groups — now and in the future – is imperative”.

Senator Bob Menendez, a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Congressman Eliot L. Engel, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, issued a joint statement “in response to the steps India has taken to revise the status of Jammu and Kashmir”.

The US legislators reminded the Indian government that “transparency and political participation” were “the cornerstones of representative democracies. And “we hope the Indian government will abide by these principles in Jammu and Kashmir,” they added.