Kashmir Sees More Than $2.4 Billion Losses Since Lockdown indiatoday.in

A lockdown in Indian-administered Kashmir has cost it's economy more than $2.4 billion since the government stripped it of its special status, officials of the Himalayan region's main trade organization said on Wednesday. "In the last 120 days, we have witnessed how each and every sector has bled … we fear this crisis will further intensify in 2020," Sheikh Ashiq Ahmed, president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), told Reuters.

The government in August revoked the constitutional autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, India's only Muslim-majority state, splitting it into two federal territories in a bid to integrate it fully with India and to rein in militancy. Kashmir is claimed in full by both India and Pakistan, which have gone to war twice over it, and both rule parts of it. India's portion has been plagued by separatist violence since the late 1980s. The surprise change in status was accompanied by a security crackdown that included the severing of telecommunications links and curbs on travel and the deployment of thousands of troops.