‘Lockdown on thoughts’: Kashmiris slam India’s free speech curbs
Sadia Munawar is a 29-year-old government employee in Indian-administered Kashmir. She is also an amateur poet…. Munawar (not her real name) says she has closely witnessed the recent years of unrests, lockdowns and fear among the people in the disputed region….
Munawar has now decided to quit social media following a recent order asking government employees to share details of their social media accounts, mainly Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Since the March 3 order, social media in Indian-administered Kashmir, once a vibrant space for political debates and expressions of dissent, has largely fallen silent.
The order authorises the police in the disputed region to scrutinise social media accounts of government employees, saying no new government recruit would be paid their salaries until they undergo a verification process by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID)….
