SRINAGAR: Amid a strict military curfew and communication blockade, the first signs of Kashmir's refusal to accept India's recent decision to remove its constitutional autonomy came from a small suburb outside the Srinagar city on August 9.

A large procession of people outside the mosque of Jenab Sahib in Soura neighbourhood was met with tear gas shelling and gunfire, injuring several dozen people.

Ever since, the people of Jenab Sahib have been on a round-the-clock vigil, dispatching dozens of young men to guard the neighbourhood frontiers and keep the Indian police and paramilitary forces at bay.

The entrance has been blocked by tree logs, tin sheets, metal planks, piles of broken bricks and whatever comes in useful to block the police vehicles.

“The army has threatened us with dire consequences if we do not discontinue the protests," said Humaira, a 17-year-old resident of Jenab Sahib. "We are anxious. We fear for the safety of our brothers. They can be picked up by the soldiers anytime. That's why we're staying awake at night."

Inside the barricaded enclave on the afternoon of August 16, men, women and children were scattered in groups, joking while maintaining a fixed gaze on the entry and exit points.

For Rukhsana, 18, the trauma began on August 5 soon after the Indian government repealed the constitutional autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, which was accompanied by a strict military curfew in the disputed region. She and her family have barely slept since. Indian paramilitary forces showed up in the neighbourhood, knocking on the front doors of several houses in the middle of the night.

"The soldiers would come thrice every night – at 1am, 3am and 4.30am – shouting into the loudspeakers and threatening us that the crackdown will continue and no one should go to the local mosque," Rukhsana said, recalling the night when Indian armed forces knocked on the front door of her house.—Trtworld