The Indian government has revoked the special status accorded to Indian-administeredashmirn its constitution, the most far-reaching political move on the disputed region in nearly 70 years.
A presidential decree issued on August 5evoked Article 370f India's constitution that guaranteed special rights to the Muslim-majority state, including the right to its own constitution and autonomy to make laws on all matters except defence, communications and foreign affairs.
In the lead-up to the move,ndiaent thousands of additional troops to the disputed region, imposed a crippling curfew, shut down telecommunications and internet, and arrested political leaders.
The move has worsened the already-heightened tensions with neighbouringakistan, which said it would downgrade its diplomatic relations with India.
India and Pakistan claim Kashmir in full but rule it in part. The nuclear-armed neighbours have fought two of their three wars over the disputed territory. A rebellion in Indian-administered Kashmir has been ongoing for three decades.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, inis opinion pieceorhe New York Times, said talks between India and Pakistan can only begin if New Delhi reverses its "illegal annexation of Kashmir, ends the curfew and lockdown, and withdraws its troops to thearracks".
Khan's piece was published as Pakistan came to a standstill on Friday as tens of thousands poured onto streets in a government-led demonstration of solidarity with the disputed region of Kashmir, after India revoked its autonomy this month.
"I wanted to normalize relations with India through trade and by settling the Kashmir dispute, the foremost impediment to the normalization of relations between us," Khan said.
Pakistan's prime minister has vowed to raise the issue of rights violations allegedly perpetrated by India in the disputed region of Kashmir at the United Nations next month, as tens of thousands held protests across the country expressing solidarity with the Kashmiris.
"The whole world should have stood with Kashmir," Prime Minister Imran Khan said at a rally of thousands outside his office in the capital Islamabad on Friday.
India's two main ports said they had been warned by the coastguard and intelligence officials that Pakistan-trained commandos have entered Indian waters to carry out underwater attacks on port facilities.
The Mundra Port, run by Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, and the state-owned Kandla Port asked their employees and ship operators to be vigilant, port officials and the ports said in advisories seen by Reuters news agency.
Intelligence inputs shared by government officials suggested that "Pakistan-trained commandos" had entered the Gulf of Kutch on the west coast to foment violence, the Kandla Port said in an advisory.
As India extends its military lockdown in Kashmir, there are fears that the resistance movement may adopt a strategy of violence to fight against the punishing measures - which include mass arrests, a communications shutdown and alleged police brutality and harassment.
Chants of "one solution, gun solution" have recently resounded at protests in the Muslim-majority Indian-administered region, which on August 5 was subject to a complete military crackdown after the Hindu-nationalist ruling party revoked Article 370, which had granted Kashmir a degree of autonomy.
Pakistan's military has successfully carried out a training launch of a surface-to-surface ballistic missile, at a time of heightened tension with neighbouring India over the disputed region of Kashmir, a spokesman said.
"Pakistan successfully carried out night training launch of ... missile Ghaznavi capable of delivering multiple types of warheads," the spokesman for the armed forces, Major General Asif Ghafoor, said on Twitter.
The missile can deliver a warhead to a distance of up to 290km.
Satya Pal Malik, the New Delhi-appointed governor of Jammu and Kashmir,ays the central government plans to hire tens of thousands of workers.alik called it the largest recruitment drive in the region, with officials planning to fill up "50,000 vacancies in various government departments in the next few months".
At a news conference in the main city of Srinagar, Malik also announced that the government is willing to commit $700m to help apple farmers. Indian authorities believe the move will expand the region's economy, to which horticulture, particularly apple orchards, is critical.
India's unilateral actions in Kashmir pose "grave" risks to regional peace and are aimed at altering the demography of the Muslim-majority region, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan said in phone calls with the leaders of Jordan andrance.
French President Emmanuel Macron underlined the importance of "resolving all outstanding issues through peaceful means", according to a statement from Khan's office.
Jordan's King Abdullah called for de-escalation and peaceful resolution of the dispute, Khan's office said. He also pledged to consult other countries over the situation.
At least 500 incidents of protest have broken out in Indian-administered Kashmir since New Dehli stripped the region of its autonomy and imposed a military clampdown more than three weeks ago, a senior government official has told the AFP news agency.
The official said at least 500 protests and incidents of stone-throwing have occurred since August 5, with more than half taking place in the main city of Srinagar.
India's top court is taking up legal challenges to the government's decision to revoke Indian-administered Kashmir's special status and has asked the government to explain its stance to the court.
The Supreme Court held a preliminary hearing on the petitions and said five judges will start a regular hearing in October.
It ordered the federal government to file its replies to 14 petitions and inform the court about the media restrictions imposed in Kashmir.
Rahul Gandhi, leader of India's main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, has said Kashmir is India's internal issue and Pakistan "instigates and supports" violence in the region.
"I disagree with this Govt. on many issues. But, let me make this absolutely clear: Kashmir is India's internal issue & there is no room for Pakistan or any other foreign country to interfere in it," Gandhi tweeted.
Pakistan's military has accused Indian troops of firing acrosshe Line of Control (LoC) in the disputedashmiregion, killing two civilians and wounding three others.
It said in a statement that the dead included a 45-year-old man and a three-year-old girl, while the wounded were taken to hospital.
The Indian fire also burned three homes in the village of Nekrun near the heavily militarised LoC, it added.
The army did not say whether it returned fire and there was no immediate comment from India.
Pakistan's Prime Ministermran Khanis considering a complete closure of airspace tondiand blocking Indian land trade tofghanistania Pakistan, according to the Pakistani minister for science and technology.
"PM is considering a complete closure of Air Space to India, a complete ban on use of Pakistan Land routes for Indian trade to Afghanistan was also suggested in cabinet meeting, legal formalities for these decisions are under consideration ... #Modi has started we'll finish!," Fawad Chaudhry wrote on Twitter.
The tweet gave no more details on why Pakistan would be considering the moves against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government now.
Pakistan had reopened its airspace in mid-July afterlmost five months after closing it in the wake of a military standoff with India.
The months of restrictions forced long detours that cost airlines millions of dollars.
More than a thousand students rallied in the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir to denounce India's downgrading of the special status of the portion of the disputed region it controls.
The demonstrators chanted "We want freedom" and denounced human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Tuesday's rally in Muzaffarabad came a day after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan vowed to globally highlight the issue of Kashmir. He will address the UN General Assembly on September 27.
Deepak Lal came to Kashmir's main city of Srinagar in May hoping to find work as a painter. The 23-year-old travelled several hundred miles from his home state of West Bengal in eastern India to the disputed Himalayan region expecting to work during the summer and autumn months.
His plan was foiled when India's Hindu nationalist government imposed an unprecedented security lockdown in the territory earlier this month, followed by a contentious move to strip the region of its limited autonomy.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Sunday brushed away criticism of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after the gulf nation gave Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi its highest civilian honour amid the lockdown in Kashmir.
He saidndia and the UAE have a "history of relations in connection with investment".ureshi added thate will soon have a "meeting with the UAE foreign minister to inform him about the prevailing situation in India-held Kashmir".
A Kashmiri truck driver in Indian-administered Kashmir was killed as fresh clashes between the security forces and residents broke out, police said,mid a security and communications blackout that is now in its fourth week.
Noor Mohammed Dar, 42, was struck on the head as protesters hurled stones at security forces during a confrontation in the city of Srinagar.
The governor of Jammu and Kashmir state, Satya Pal Malik, has said there is no shortage of medicines or other essential commodities in the disputed region which has been under lockdown for more than three weeks.
"In fact, we delivered meat, vegetables and eggs to people's houses on Eid. Your opinion will change in 10-15 days," he told reporters in New Delhi as he defended the curfew.
Kannan Gopinathan, a 33-year-old Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer hailing from the southern state of Kerala, quit his government job, saying he has his "own conscience to answer to" over the crippling lockdown and denial of fundamental rights in Indian-administered Kashmir, Indian mediaeported.
"If you ask me what you were doing, when one of the world's largest democracies announced a ban on the entire state, and even violated the fundamental rights of the people, I should at least be able to reply that I quit my job," he told an Indian news portal.
Syed Ali Shah Geelani, a prominent separatist leader in Indian-administered Kashmir, has called on residents of the region to peacefully resist Indian rule in the disputed territory.
"It is our heartfelt appeal to the people of Jammu and Kashmir that we must continue to resist at this critical juncture ... We all can, and must, act according to our abilities; through action or word. People should organise peaceful protests and demonstrations in their areas of residence," the 89-year-old leader said in a statement.
Geelani, who has been held at his home since India's decision to revoke Kashmir's special status, also urged Pakistan to act decisively.
The statement was his first since India's move.
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has received the United Arab Emirate's (UAE) highest civilian honour.
Modi was awarded the Order of Zayed medal by the UAE's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (known by his initials MBZ), during a visit to the capital Abu Dhabi.
But the award has sparked outrage among rights activists over the Modi government's clampdown in the Muslim-majority Kashmir region administered by New Delhi.
A delegation of India's main opposition politicians, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, has been sent back to the capital, New Delhi, after it reached Srinagar, news agency ANI reported.
Gandhi and others had flown in to the disputed region to observe the situation on the ground.
India's main opposition politicians, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, are expected to arrive in Srinagar, despite appeals by the government not to visit the tense region.
The political parties forming the opposition's delegation are the Congress, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party, Trinamool Congress and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Indian media reports said.
Pakistan has sent another letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), demanding intervention to end the "humanitarian crises" in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
Minister of Foreign Affairshah Mehmood Qureshias underscored the importance for the world community, including the UN, to call upon India to rescind its unilateral actions, lift the curfew and other draconian measures and restore fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people, the statement said.
Authorities in Srinagar have tightened security ahead of Friday prayers after there were calls for a protest march to a UN office.
Posters appeared overnight this week in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir, calling for a march to the office of the UN Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan to protest against India's revocation of Jammu and Kashmir state's special autonomy.
More than 150 people have suffered injuries from tear gas and pellets in disputedashmirince Indian security forces launched a major crackdown this month, data from the region's two main hospitals shows.
At least 152 people reported to Srinagar's Shere Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) and Shri Maharaj Hari Singh hospital with injuries from pellet shots and tear gas fire between August 5 and August 21, according to data acquired by Reuters news agency.
Major opposition parties inndiaave joined forces to protest against the government's clampdown in Indian-administeredashmir demanding the immediate release of political leaders and the restoration of communication services in the Himalayan region
Opposition figures addressed the New Delhi protest, which was organisedyravidaunnetra Kazhagam, aegional party from the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
"The rulingharatiya Janata Partynd its ideological wing, RSS, are celebrating the abrogation of Article 370, while the majority of people don't even know what the Article is," Ghulam Nabi Azad, of the Indian National Congress, told the hundreds of people in the crowd.
The music videos began appearing onocial mediaithin hours of the announcement byndia's Hindu-led nationalist government that it wastripping statehoodrom the disputed region ofashmirhat had been in place for decades.
The songs delivered a message to India's 250 million YouTube users about moving to the Muslim-majority region, buying land there and marrying Kashmiri women.
It is the latest example of a growing genre in India known as "patriotism pop" - songs floodingocial mediabout nationalism and the country's burgeoning right-wing ideology.
"I arrived in Srinagar with my sister on August 1. Having grown up in Kashmir, I didn't think too much when I saw the shuttered tourist information desk at the airport and the military presence.
Driving home, I noticed that the military presence was larger than normal in what is already one of the most militarised zones in the world. It was the peak of the tourist season, thousands of Amarnath Yatra pilgrims were visiting, and with Eid and the wedding season around the corner, the streets were busy.
The following morning, I woke up early. My phone was buzzing with messages from friends and family asking if we were OK."
Pakistan's Prime Ministermran Khanhas ruled out seeking dialogue with India over the Kashmir issue, saying "there is nothing more we can do".
"There is no point in talking to them," Khan said in an interview with The New York Times. "I have done all the talking. Unfortunately, now when I look back, all the overtures that I was making for peace and dialogue, I think they took it for appeasement."
Pakistan has demanded thenited Nationsemove Indian actress Priyanka Chopra as a UN goodwill ambassador over her "support for war" amid heightened tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
In a letter to the UNICEF chief Henrietta Fore, Pakistan's Minister of Human Rights Shireen Mazari accused the 37-year-old actress and former Miss World of publicly endorsing the position of Prime Ministerarendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government in Indian-administered Kashmir.
"Her jingoism and support for violations by the Modi government of international conventions and UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir, as well as support for war, including a nuclear war, undermines the credibility of the UN position to which she been elevated," Mazari said in the letter.
Separatist leaders in Indian-administered Kashmir have urged people to defy a ban and join a mass march after Friday prayers this week.
Hundreds of political leaders and activists, many of them separatists seeking Kashmir's secession from India, have been arrested and the appeal to the public came through posters that appeared overnight in the region's main city of Srinagar.
"Every person, young and old, men and women, should march after Friday prayers," the Joint Resistance Leadership, which represents all major separatist groups, said on one poster.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken to his British counterpart, Boris Johnson, about violent demonstrations over Kashmir outside the Indian embassy in London, the foreign ministry said.
Thousands of people, many waving Pakistani and Kashmiri flags, protested outside the embassy last week, on India's independence day, against Modi's withdrawal of Kashmir's special status.
In a telephone call with Johnson, Modi "referred to the violence and vandalism perpetrated by a large mob against the High Commission of India in London", India's foreign ministry said in a statement.
"Prime Minister Johnson regretted the incident and assured that all necessary steps would be taken to ensure safety and security of the High Commission, its personnel and visitors," the ministry said.
US President Donald Trump has reasserted his offer to mediate what he called an "explosive" situation in Kashmir.
Trump said he would raise the matter over the weekend with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the G7 summit in France.
"Kashmir is a very complicated place. You have Hindus and you have the Muslims and I wouldn't say they get along so great," Trump told reporters at the White House.
"I will do the best I can to mediate," he added.
Two people, including a police officer, were killed in a gun battle between armed rebels and security forces in Indian-administered Kashmir, police said on Wednesday.
The clash in the northern district of Baramulla was the first to be reported by the authorities since New Delhi revoked the autonomy of the part of Kashmir that it controls and imposed a curfew and communications lockdown earlier this month.
After August 5, when India revoked Kashmir's special status and followed the move with a military lockdown, Uzma Javed did not leave her house for days. Every few hours, she looked out of the window from her family's two-storey house in Srinagar, the largest city in Indian-administered Kashmir.
A 20-year-old student who usually lives in Kerala, Javed had returned home to spend Eid with her relatives. But instead of celebrating, she found herself caged in while outside, armed Indian paramilitary forces manned largely empty streets.
French President Emmanuel Macron will discuss tensions in the divided region of Kashmir with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi when the two meet in Paris this week, a French official said.
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also weighed in on Kashmir telling Modi in a phone call that the issue was one for India and Pakistan to resolve between themselves through dialogue.
Macron and Modi are set to sit down for a working dinner at the Chateau de Chantilly outside Paris on Thursday ahead of a G7 summit in France this weekend, to which Modi has been invited.
Pakistan said it would take the Kashmir dispute with India to the International Court of Justice after New Delhi revoked special status for its portion of the region earlier this month.
"We have decided to take Kashmir case to the International Court of Justice," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told ARY News TV.
"The decision was taken after considering all legal aspects."
As the tough political talk on Kashmir has a direct effect on the lives of millions of people on both sides of the Line of Control, Al Jazeera talks to three key figures on the Pakistani side and asks: Will Pakistan be able to neutralise the Indian move; can diplomacy defuse tensions; and will other powers like China get involved, and if so, what could this mean for Kashmiris?
Security forces have detained 30 people overnight in Srinagar, local officials said, amid frequentemonstrations in the city despite a clampdown on phone and internet services, a ban on public gatherings and the detention of hundreds of political leaders and separatists.
"These arrests have been made in the areas where there has been intensifying stone pelting in the last few days," a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity. A local government official confirmed the latest detentions, Reuters news agency reported.
Government sources have told AFP news agency at least 4,000 people have been arrested in Indian-administered Kashmir since August 5, with some of them moved out of the disputed region as jails have run out of capacity.
For more than a week, the young men of Soura, a densely populated enclave in Indian-administered Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, have been taking turns to maintain an around-the-clock vigil at the entry points to their neighbourhood.
Soura, home to about 15,000 people, is becoming the epicentre of resistance to India's plans to remove the partial autonomy that was enjoyed by the Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir state.
The enclave has effectively become a no-go zone for the Indian security forces.
US President Donald Trump spoke with the prime ministers of India and Pakistan, urging them to reduce tensions over the disputed region of Kashmir.
"Spoke to my two good friends, Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi of India, and Prime Minister [Imran] Khan of Pakistan, regarding Trade, Strategic Partnerships and, most importantly, for India and Pakistan to work towards reducing tensions in Kashmir," Trump tweeted.
"A tough situation, but good conversations!" the president wrote.
Main government offices and a few schools in Indian-administeredashmirave reopened after two weeks of a clampdown in the disputed region.
Nearly 200 primary schools were ordered by the authorities to reopen in certain areas. However, attendance in schools remained scant, as many parents decided against sending their children amid heightened tensions in the state.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan extended his military chief's term by another three years, an official statementeleased by his office said. The decision comes amid the ongoing crisis in Kashmir, which has seen tensions escalate between India and Pakistan.
"General Qamar Javed Bajwa is appointed as Chief of Army staff for another term of three years from date of completion of current tenure," read the statement.
"The decision has been taken in view of the regional security environment."
He was first appointed as army chief in November 2016 by the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for a three-year term.
Some 190 primary schools reopened in Indian-administered Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, but most classrooms were empty as parents kept their children home.
Parents said their children would stay home until cellular phone networks were restored and they could be in contact with them.
Pakistan said Indian troops have fired across the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region, killing two civilians and wounding another.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said in a statement that civilian casualties occurred on Sunday because of "unprovoked ceasefire violations" by India in the border villages of Hot Spring and Chirikot.
The ministry said Pakistan summoned an Indian diplomat and lodged a protest over continued ceasefire violations, which "are a threat to regional peace".
Indian authorities have reimposed restrictions on movement in major parts of Srinagar after violent overnight clashes between residents and police in which dozens were injured, officials and witnesses said.
Two senior government officials told Reuters news agency that at least two dozen people were admitted to hospitals with pellet injuries.
They also reversed a decision to allow internet and mobile phone use in parts of the Jammu region, according to one official, amid concerns about the spread of rumours online.
A magistrate speaking to AFP news agency on condition of anonymity said at least 4,000 people were arrested in Indian-administered Kashmir and held under the Public Safety Act (PSA), a controversial law that allows authorities to imprison someone for up to two years without charge or trial.
"Most of them were flown out of Kashmir because prisons here have run out of capacity," the magistrate said, adding that he had used a satellite phone allocated to him to collate the figures from colleagues across the Himalayan territory amid a communications blackout imposed by authorities.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged the international community to take steps to secure India's nuclear arsenal after New Delhi hinted a shift in its "no first use" policy.
"The World must also seriously consider the safety & security of India's nuclear arsenal in the control of the fascist, racist Hindu Supremacist Modi Govt. This is an issue that impacts not just the region but the world," he said in a tweet.
India's Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday said while India had strictly adhered to the nuclear weapons doctrine of "no first use" policy, what would happen in the future will depend on circumstances.
Indian authorities have carried out a major crackdown against political leaders in Indian-administered Kashmir and arrested high-profile figures that include three former chief ministers of the Muslim-majority state.
The arrests coincided with the abrogation of the decades-old Article 370 of the Indian constitution that protected the demography of Jammu and Kashmir state and provided it with limited autonomy.
Gunfire has been exchanged across the heavily-militarised Line of Control (LoC) between Indian-administered and Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
The incident took place in Nowshera town of the Rajouri district in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian defence spokesman Colonel Aman Anand said that one soldier was killed allegedly by Pakistan forces. Pakistan has yet to comment on this latest development.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said the country was establishing a Kashmir desk at the ministry and at its embassies in foreign capitals.
He said this was decided to "lobby for Kashmiris and their right to self-determination" andin order to carry out effective communication on the matter".
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan welcomed the UN Security Council meeting that was held in New York on Friday.
He hailed the session as a "reaffirmation" of 11 previous UNSC resolutions on Kashmir, that gaurantees Kashmiris the right to self-determination.
Local police in the Jammu and Kashmir state said on Saturday that 17 out of 100 telephone exchanges were restored in the Kashmir Valley.
According to Al Jazeera correspondent Anchal Vohra, most of the landline telephone services in Jammu had been restored. Restrictions were tougher in Kashmir, where India's clampdown continues to be far more constraining.
The famous red dot that marks the story of Indian-administered Kashmir on social media came much before India scrapped the Muslim-majority region of its special status.
The decision to revoke Article 370 of India's constitution on August 5 was preceded by a heavy military build-up in the Himalayan valley, followed by a crippling lockdown now in its 12th day, and arrests of hundreds of political leaders and activists.
A few days after Jammu and Kashmir's special status was eradicated, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that the now-abolished Article 370 of India's constitution - the provision that had guaranteed special rights to the Muslim-majority region - had also hampered its economic development.
"There must be investment and job opportunities in Jammu and Kashmir," Modi told CNN-News 18. "No one goes there to invest."
US Presidentonald Trumpold Pakistan's Prime Ministermran Khanhat it was important India and Pakistan reduce tensions in Jammu andashmirhrough "bilateral dialogue," the White House said in a statement.
White House spokespersonogan Gidleyaid the two leaders in a telephone call also discussed building the growing relationship between the United States and Pakistan, citing momentum created during their recent meeting at the White House.
India's ambassador to thenited Nationsriticised international interference over Kashmir, after the Security Council held its first formal meeting on the disputed region in decades.
"We don't need international busybodies to try to tell us how to run our lives," Syed Akbaruddin told reporters in New York, adding thatndia's decision was an internal matter.
"If there are issues, they will be discussed, they will be addressed by our courts," he said.
Pakistan's ambassador to the UN said people in Indian-administered Kashmir "are not alone", adding that theymay be locked up ... but their voices were heard today".
Maleeha Lodhi was speaking to reporters afterhe Security Council met behind closed doors to discuss the situation in Kashmir for the first time in decades. She said that the meeting was called 72 hours after Pakistan's Foreign Minister wrote a letter requesting it in the wake of India's move.
"We are grateful to China in also joining us and calling this meeting," she said.
"The voice of the Kashmiri people, the voice of the people of occupied Kashmir has been heard today in the highest diplomatic forum of the world.
"They are not alone ... their plight, their hardship, their pain, their suffering, their occupation and the consequences of that occupation has been heard in the UNSC."
Lodhi said that the very fact this meeting had taken place is "testimony to the fact that this is an internationally recognised dispute".
The Chinese ambassador to the UNaid the Security Council feared that the situation in Kashmir might worsen.
Speaking to reporters after the council wrapped up the closed-door meeting in New York,hang Jun saidhe situation in Kashmir is "already very tense and very dangerous".
He added that the members of the council generally feel India and Pakistan should both refrain from unilateral action over Kashmir.
The UN Security Council met behind closed doors to discuss the situation in Kashmir for the first time in decades at the request of China and Pakistan.
The UN's most powerful body was being briefed morning by Assistant Secretary-General Oscar Fernandez-Taranco and General Carlos Humberto Loitey, the UN military adviser.
UN officials said the council session may be its first on Kashmir since the late 1990s, or possibly since the 1971 India-Pakistan war.
Russia's deputy UN ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, told reporters as he headed into the meeting that Moscow was concerned about the latest developments, but he said it was "a bilateral issue".
Amnesty International Secretary-General Kumi Naidoo said in a statement that council members "need to remember that their mandate is to protect international peace and security - and they should seek to resolve the situation in a way that puts the human rights of the people in this troubled region at its centre."
Prime Minister Khan, has held a telephone conversation with Trump in which the two leaders discussed the events in Kashmir.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Khan shared his concern with Trump that the situation in Kashmir posed a danger to the region.
He said the conversation was part of the prime minister's outreach to world leaders about the developments in Kashmir.
There was no information about Trump's comments.
Scores of Pakistanis living inurkeygathered outside the Pakistan Embassy in Ankara on Thursday evening for a candlelight vigil expressing their solidarity with the people of Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.
With candles and posters in their hands, they were joined by many Turks, who said they had come to express support for the Kashmiri population.
India will begin restoring phone lines in Kashmir on Friday evening, a top official said, after a 12-day blackout following the stripping of the region's autonomy.
Jammu and Kashmir Chief Secretary BVR Subrahmanyam did not make clear, however, whether mobile phones and internet connections would also be reinstated in the Muslim-majority northern region.
"You will see a gradual restoration (of telephone lines) from tonight and tomorrow onwards. You will find a lot of Srinagar functioning tomorrow morning," Subrahmanyam said, referring to the main city in the restive Kashmir Valley.
"Exchange by exchange they will be switching it on. Over the weekend you will have most of these lines functioning most probably," he told reporters.
He said the easing would "(keep) in mind the constant threat posed by terrorist organisations in using mobile connectivity to organised terrorist actions."
The first special UN Security Council session on Kashmir will take place today after 54 years.
In Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Al Jazeera's Osama Bin Javaid, said "expectations are really high" ahead of the session.
"The people are calling on the UN and the UNSC members to listen to the plight of the Kashmiris," said Javaid.
The UNSC move is being hailed as a diplomatic victory by Pakistan, but the government was wary of any "concrete steps to be taken to stop India or roll back whats its done in Kashmir".
While the Kashmir region remains locked down, Kashmiri diaspora is using social media to organise protests and mobilise opinion.
Amid the crisis, Stand With Kashmir, a grassroots advocacy group in thenited States, posted a red dot on its Instagram account they had set up only months ago.
"We decided to use it [the red dot] as a campaign [to] try to at least do some kind of an initial social media organising to make people aware."
India will lift restrictions on people's movements and communication links in Kashmir in the next few days, the federal government told the Supreme Court on Friday.
The court was hearing a petition by a newspaper editor seeking restoration of telephone and internet services snapped this month, just before the government withdrew Kashmir's special status, to prevent protests.
The restrictions would be lifted in the "next few days", the government lawyer, Tushar Mehta, said.The ground situation is being reviewed daily and the Supreme Court must trust the security agencies."
Pakistan's army said Indian troops fired across the Line of Control in the disputed Kashmir region, killing another soldier and bringing the death toll to six in less than 24 hours.
Army spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor in a tweet Friday said "another brave son of soil lost his life in the line of duty" in Buttal town.
On Thursday, Pakistan's army said ateast three of its soldiersnd five Indian soldiers were killed after a cross-border exchange of fire, prompting a denial by New Delhi that there were fatalities among its forces.
Indian troops detained a Kashmiri reporter working for a local newspaper in an overnight raid on his house in Southern Pulwama district, his family said.
Irfan Ahmad Malik, 28, works for Greater Kashmir, the largest daily newspaper in the Kashmir valley. It was not immediately clear why he had been detained.
More than 500 local leaders and activists have been detained in the past 12 days of the crackdown.
Several thousand people protested outside the Indian embassy in London against the country's move to strip the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir of its autonomy.
The protesters in the United Kingdom's capital held up signs reading "Kashmir is bleeding" and waved Kashmiri and Pakistani flags. Police separated them from a smaller pro-India counter-demonstration.
An Indian army spokesperson has denied the Pakistani army's statement that five Indian soldiers were killed in a cross-border exchange of fire in the disputed region of Kashmir.
"No casualties. This assertion is wrong," the spokesperson was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.
In a statement quoted by news agencies, the Indian army said that at about 7am, Pakistan violated a ceasefire between the two nations in the heavily militarised LoC.
At least three Pakistani soldiers and five Indian troops have been killed after an exchange of fire across the Line of Control in the disputed region of Kashmir, Pakistan's army has said.
Major General Asif Ghafoor, the chief spokesman of the Pakistan Armed Forces, said in a Twitter post on Thursday that Indian forces had increased firing along the contested border.
Pakistan is observing a 'Black Day' to coincide with India's independence day celebrations.
Newspaper issues carried black borders and politicians, including Prime Minister Imran Khan, replaced their social media pictures with black squares. Flags on government buildings flew at half-mast.
Nearly a 1,000 supporters of Hizbul Mujahideen rebel group marched through Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, holding black flags and shouting anti-India slogans.
The UN Security Council (UNSC) is expected to discuss the Kashmir issue on Friday, Radio Pakistaneported, citing diplomatic sources.
Pakistan's Geo News also reported the news quoting UNSC president Joanna Wronecka as saying: "The UNSC will discuss the Jammu and Kashmir situation behind closed doors most likely on August 16."
Amnesty International has asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modio lift the communications blackout and engage with the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
"It is a paradox that as India celebrates its 73rd independence day today, the people of Jammu and Kashmir continue to be subjected to a lockdown for the past 10 days," the rights group said in a statement.
Modi has defended his decision to revoke Kashmir's special status, saying the move is to ensure the idea of "one nation, one constitution", which he said will foster growth in the troubled region, at the 73rd-anniversary celebration of Indian independence in New Delhi.
"We don't believe in delaying solving problems, we also don't let problems fester," Modi said, saying two-thirds of both houses of Indian parliament approved the plan.
Millions in Indian-administered Kashmir are living under curfew after the government revoked the state's semi-autonomy.
Thousands of troops were sent to the Muslim-majority region, while telephone lines and internet connections are blocked.
Al Jazeera's The Streamooks at what lies in store for the people of Kashmir amid the ongoingockdown.
A group of Indian activists, economists, writers and members of leftist organisationsresented their observations of the situation in Kashmir in the capital New Delhi on Wednesday after returning from a five-day trip to the disputed region.
Kavita Krishnan, a left-wing activist, said the situation is "absolutely not normal," contrary to reports by several Indian news broadcasters.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said it has summoned an Indian diplomat to protest the killing of a civilian by Indian fire in disputed Kashmir.
The ministry said in a statement that a 38-year-old villager was killed on Tuesday by an "unprovoked cease-fire violation by Indian troops on the Pakistani side of Kashmir."
Restrictions in the Jammu region of Indian-administered Kashmir have been "completely removed", Indian news agency PTI said, quoting a senior police official.
"Restrictions imposed in Jammu have been completely removed and schools and other establishments there are functioning. Restrictions will continue in some places of Kashmir for some time,"dditional Director General Munir Khan said, according to PTI.
India's move of revoking Article 370 and imposing a lockdown in Kashmir is a strategic blunder by Indian PM Narendra Modi, his Pakistani counterpart Imran Khan has said while addressing legislators in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
Khan visited Muzaffarabad on Pakistan's independence day ase reaffirmed his support to the Kashmiri people in their struggle for self-determination amid heightened tensions with neighbouringndia.
Shah Faesal, a former bureaucrat who launched a political party in Indian-administered Kashmir earlier this year, has been arrested at New Delhi airport and sent back to Srinagar, according to Indian media reports.
On Tuesday, Faesal had tweeted that Kashmir "will need a long, sustained, non-violent" movement for the restoration of the Muslim-majority region's special status under the Indian constitution.
Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan has visitedakistan-administered Kashmir as heeiterated his support to the Kashmiri people living in the Indian-administered part of the divided region.
Khan's visit touzzaffarad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, to mark the country's independence day came more than a week afterew Delhi's decision to downgrade Kashmir's status.
Pakistan is observing its 72nd independence day in solidarity with the people of Kashmir this year.
While addressing a flag-hoisting ceremony in the capital, Islamabad, President Arif Alvi said that Pakistan has always stood by Kashmiris and would continue to do so, local media Dawneported.
Restrictions on freedom of movement in Indian-administered Kashmir will be eased after India's independence day on Thursday, the state governor said; phone lines and the internet will remain cut off.
Satya Pal Malikoldhe Times of India that communications would remain blocked.
"In a week or 10 days, everything will be all right and we will gradually open lines of communication,"alik told the newspaper in an interview.
Amnesty Internationalndia condemned a decision by India's Supreme Courto allow New Delhi to continue a security crackdown and communications blackout in Indian-administered Kashmir.
Amnesty alsorgedew Delhi to ease restrictions and expressed "deep concern" over people's right to freedom of movement, expression and opinion, as well as the detention of political leaders and activists, and "the impairment of the press to freely report on the current developments and act as a bridge for the voices from the region".
The Pakistani government asked the UN Security Council to meet over India's decision revoking Indian-administered Kashmir's special status.
"Pakistan will not provoke a conflict. But India should not mistake our restraint for weakness," Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi wrote in a letter to the council seen by Reuters news agency.
It was not immediately clear how the 15-member council would respond to the request. Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz told reporters at the UN that the council "will discuss that issue and take a proper decision".
Poland holds the presidency of the council for August.
The main city in Indian-administeredKashmiras turned into a vast maze of razor wire coils and steel barricades as drones and helicopters hover overhead.
Although the four million residents of the Kashmir Valley - where an armed conflict has simmered for decades - are used to blockades, they say the current one is something they have never seen before.
"The entire Srinagar city has been knitted in razor wire to seek our silence and obedience," resident Zameer Ahmed told The Associated Press news agency.
India's Supreme Court, in reviewing a petition for the immediate withdrawal of severe government restrictions in Kashmir, said the security crackdown and communications blackout should continue because the government needed more time to tackle thesensitive"ituation.
Attorney General KK Venugopal said:We are reviewing the situation and lifting restrictions step by step,"n the Supreme Court, according to legal reporting website Bar&Bench.
An unprecedented security lockdown has kept people in Indian-administered Kashmir indoors for a ninth day, with residents running short of essentials under a near-constant curfew and communications blackout.
The lockdown is expected to last at least through Thursday, India's independence day.
An open letter signed by 69 human rights activists and organisations, lawyers, journalists and academics, addressed to India's Prime Minister Narendra Modiaised concerns over the human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The letter called on Modi to revoke the curfew, reinstate communication, release all those arbitrarily detained over the last few days, and restore the status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 of India's constitution, which granted the Muslim-majority state considerable autonomy.
Hundreds of protesters defied a security lockdown in Indian-administered Kashmir on the first day of the Eid al-Adha holiday, as they marched on the streets of capital, Srinagar.
The protests lasted for a few hours after Eid prayers, before demonstrators dispersed peacefully.
"For Muslims, there are two days which are festive and sacred, and that's Eid ... but this is not our Eid. We are just mourning in Kashmir," a resident told Al Jazeera.
US President Donald Trump's offer of mediation on the Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan is "not on the table anymore," Indian media reports quoting India's ambassador to the United States said.
"President Trump has made it very clear that his offer to mediate on Jammu and Kashmir is dependent on both India and Pakistan accepting it. Since India has not accepted the offer of mediation, he has made it clear that this is not on the table anymore,"arsh Vardhanhringla told a US-based news channel.
India calls the part of Kashmir it administers itsinternal affair"nd rejects any mediation, while Pakistan, which also claims the Himalayan region in full, wants world powers to resolve the issue.
Indian actress Priyanka Chopra has been branded aypocrite over a tweethe posted in February amid escalating tensions between neighbours India and Pakistan.
The incident, which was widely shared online, took place during aosmetics event on Saturday in the US city of Los Angeles when audience memberyeshaalik accusedChopra of "encouraging nuclear war against Pakistan".
People living in the disputed region of Kashmire have said they are afraid of escalating tension.
The disputed region is one of the world's most dangerous flashpoints between nuclear-armed rivals, Pakistan and India.
Al Jazeera's Osama Bin Javaid reports from the line of control in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.
US-based group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has expressed concern over the continued lockdown and communications blackout in Indian-administered Kashmir.
"There has to be a rights respecting-approach to handle the situation in Kashmir, where people are able to speak to their loved ones, have access to communication, essential supplies and hospitals, but we are seeing none of that,"eenakshi Ganguly, HRW's South Asia director, told Al Jazeera from Mumbai.
"This is not a sustainable solution. If the Indian government has decided to impose restrictions ... they should ensure the Kashmiris are able to live their lives normally," she added.
Almost 300 Kashmiris and activists gathered in India's capital, New Delhi, to mark theid al-Adhaelebration as Indian-administered Kashmir remains under lockdown for a week.
"I am here to express my solidarity with the people of Kashmir who have not been able to go home and are not able to talk to their parents because there is a total clampdown on communication," said activist Shabnam Hashmi. "We are not celebrating Eid today."
The Pakistani government has called for the Eid al-Adha celebration to be observed in a "simple manner" this year, to express solidarity with Kashmiris living on the Indian side of the divided region.
Pakistan's Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi travelled to Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, to offer Eid prayers at a mosque there.
In the southern city of Karachi, prayers were dedicated to Kashmiris in India. "We are together with our Kashmiri brothers," said resident Mohammad Adnan.
"We share their pain and grief. Today, special prayers were offered for them inside the mosque."
On the lawn of the district commissioner's office in Srinagar, the main city of Indian-administered Kashmir, residents circle a table, hoping their turn will come soon.
With phone and internet usage cut off during a week-long lockdown imposed by the Indian government, authorities are allowing locals to use a mobile phone to briefly speak to their loved ones outside the Muslim-majority state.
Indian troops imposed tight restrictions on mosques across Kashmir for the Eid al-Adha celebration, fearing anti-government protests over the stripping of the Muslim-majority region's autonomy, according to residents.
The Himalayan region's biggest mosque, the Jama Masjid, was ordered to be closed and people were only allowed to pray in smaller local mosques so that no big crowds could gather, witnesses said.
All phone lines and the internet remained cut off for an eighth day on Monday.
India has asked the International Tennis Federation to move their upcoming Davis Cup tie from Pakistan to a neutral venue due to escalating political tensions between the two nations.
The Indian team ischeduledo be in Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, for the Asia/Oceania zone Group I tie to be held on September 14 and 15.
"We have asked ITF for a neutral venue because the situation is a bit unpredictable," All India Tennis Association (AITA) president Praveen Mahajan told AFP on Sunday.
"I believe it is a reasonable request because of the current state of affairs."
Mushaal Hussein Mullick, theife of Yasin Malik, a leading Kashmiri rebel leader held by India, has appealed to the world to "wake up" and intervene as the situation in the disputed territory remains tense.
Mullick told British broadcaster Sky News that "time is running short", and that her husband's "only hope is that the world will come forward".
Yasin Malik used to head pro-independence group the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), which was banned in March as part of India's crackdown on separatist groups.
Malik was arrested a month later and is being held at Tihar prison in New Delhi. "He is so weak and doctors ... they've all said that he's going to die like this," his wife said.
Pakistan's foreign minister has strongly criticised the Indian government for its revocation of Kashmir's autonomous status.
In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera in Muzaffarabad,ureshiaid: "Pakistan is watching the situation carefully, and so is the world."
"We are concerned about the genocide that we feel can take place, or perhaps is taking place right now, because we have no idea what's going on in the Indian-occupied Kashmir right now," he argued.
"When they lifted the curfew for a few hours we saw thousands of people protesting in the streets, so it's an evolving situation."