SRINAGAR: For
more than a week, the young men of Soura, a densely populated enclave in
Kashmir's main city of Srinagar, have been taking turns to maintain an
around-the-clock vigil at the entry points to their neighborhood. Each of the
dozen or so entrances have been blocked with makeshift barricades of bricks,
corrugated metal sheets, wooden slabs and felled tree trunks. Groups of youths
armed with stones congregate behind the biggest obstacles. The aim: to keep
Indian security forces, and particularly the paramilitary police, out of the
area.

"We have no
voice. We are exploding from within," said Ejaz, 25, who like many other
residents in Soura interviewed by Reuters gave only one name, saying he feared
arrest. "If the world won't listen to us too, then what should we do? Pick
up guns?" Soura, home to about 15,000 people, is becoming the epicenter of
resistance to Indian government plans to remove the partial autonomy that was
enjoyed by Jammu and Kashmir, the country's only Muslim-majority state.

The enclave,
which has effectively become a no-go zone for the Indian security forces, is
now a barometer of the ability of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's
Hindu-nationalist government to impose its will in Kashmir after its dramatic
move on Aug. 5 to tighten its control over the region. The change, the
government said, was necessary to integrate Kashmir fully into India, tackle
corruption and nepotism, and speed up its development, which Modi says is the
key to securing lasting peace and defeating terrorism.

In Soura, it's
hard to find anyone who supports Modi's move. Many of the more than two dozen
residents interviewed by Reuters over the past week referred to the Indian
prime minister as "zaalim", an Urdu word meaning "tyrant".
The constitutional change will allow non-residents to buy property in Jammu and
Kashmir and apply for jobs in local government. Some Muslims in Kashmir say
they fear that India's dominant Hindu population will overrun the lush state at
the foot of the Himalayas, and Kashmiris' identity, culture and religion will
be diluted and repressed.

"We feel
like we are guarding the LOC here," said Ejaz. The LOC refers to the Line
of Control, the highly militarized de facto border between the Indian and
Pakistani-controlled parts of Kashmir. For decades, Kashmir has been a source
of friction between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan. Both nations claim the
region in full and have fought two wars over the territory since 1947.

Residents in
Soura say that dozens of people have been injured in clashes with the
paramilitary police over the past week. It is unclear how many have been
detained. A spokesman for the Jammu and Kashmir government declined to answer
questions from Reuters. The Indian government's Home Ministry did not return
calls and emails seeking comment.

Daily battles

In Srinagar, the
government has banned gatherings of more than four people, set up scores of
roadblocks to prevent movement, and detained more than 500 politicians,
community leaders and activists. Internet and cell phone services have been out
for more than two weeks throughout the city and the rest of the Kashmir valley,
making it difficult for opponents of the government's decision to organize protests.

Landline phone
service has begun to return to the region but not to Soura, which is best-known
for a Muslim shrine and a well-regarded teaching hospital. Residents have found
other ways to organize. When they spot security forces trying to enter the
area, residents say they rush to a mosque and sound the alarm by playing a
devotional song calling for people to "stand against illegal
occupation", or by issuing an alert over the loudspeaker.

At intersections
in the warren of narrow lanes that make up Soura, a largely lower middle class
area with a lake and marshy wetlands to its west, there are piles of bricks and
stones for use against Indian troops. At one barricade, concertina wire had
been strung across the road. The young men patrolling the barrier said the wire
had been stolen from Indian security forces.

A protest on Aug.
9, when people took to the streets after Friday prayers, marked Soura as the
focal point of resistance to the Indian government's decision. As residents
from surrounding neighborhoods joined the demonstration, the crowd swelled to
at least 10,000, according to local police sources. More than a dozen residents
told Reuters that around 150 to 200 security personnel in riot gear attempted
to enter Soura after the protests, resulting in clashes with residents that
went on late into the night, as police fired tear gas and metal pellets.

The Indian
government initially denied there had been a protest, and said there had been
no gathering in Soura involving more than 20 people. It later said there had
been a demonstration of 1,000 to 1,500 people, after TV footage of the crowd
was broadcast by the BBC and Al Jazeera. Since then, Soura has been the scene
of smaller demonstrations and daily running battles with the security forces,
according to people living in the neighborhood.

The security
forces have made several attempts to enter Soura, according to residents, with
the apparent goal of sealing off a large area of open ground next to the Jinab
Sahib shrine that has become an assembly point for protesters. "Every day
they are trying to attack us here, but we are fighting back," said Owais,
in his early twenties. "We feel like we are trapped."

India's
paramilitary police say they are determined to regain control of the area.
"We have been trying to enter, but there is a lot of resistance in that
neighborhood," said an Indian paramilitary police official in Srinagar who
spoke on condition of anonymity. Another senior security official told Reuters
on the condition of anonymity that "some of the youth of the area are
highly radicalized" and it is "a hotbed of militancy". Islamist
militant groups, he said, were influential in the area.

Drones and
helicopters

Separatists have
for the past three decades fought Indian rule in Kashmir, a conflict that has
killed 50,000 people, according to the Indian government. Human rights
activists say the toll is much higher. Many Kashmiris favor independence or
joining India's Muslim-majority arch-rival Pakistan. The Islamic State, which
wants to establish a "caliphate" across the Islamic world, has also
claimed responsibility for some attacks on Indian troops in Kashmir in the past
couple of years.

Historically, the
insurgency has largely been led by militants from Pakistan, who have
infiltrated across the Line of Control. But there have also been a significant
number of local Kashmiris who have picked up arms in recent years. While the
level of support for Islamist groups in Soura is unclear, posters with pictures
of militants can be seen on many walls and electricity poles. That includes
Burhan Wani, a popular young commander of the largest Kashmiri militant group
Hizbul Mujahideen. Wani, who was born on the Indian side of the border, was
killed by security forces in 2016, sparking deadly protests and curfews that
lasted months.

The battle over
Soura has received little coverage in the Indian media. That is partly because
of the communications blackout in the region but also as many local TV channels
and newspapers have emphasized the government's position - that there is little
resistance in Kashmir to its plans. In Soura, the reality is different.

Fearing a
crackdown by security forces, some traders selling Kashmiri Pashmina carpets
and shawls here have shut shop. Fishing and lotus farming in the enclave's
polluted Anchar Lake continues, but those involved say it is difficult to get
their produce out of the area. And the security situation means people's
movements are restricted. Indian paramilitary police are present at every exit
route from Soura. Surveillance drones and helicopters have been seen flying
over the area.

Makeshift medic

Some locals said
the Indian security forces were keeping a close watch on the local hospital,
the Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, with the aim of arresting
injured protesters. People who have been hit by pellets fired by the security
forces say they have avoided going to hospitals because they fear being
detained. "We don't go to the hospital unless it's something serious or we're
hit in the eye," said Yawar Hameed, a physiotherapist who has been helping
the injured. In a two-storey wooden home, Hameed was bent over 45-year-old
Bashir Ahmed, cleaning a pellet wound near Ahmed's left eye with a swab of
cotton wool dipped in Betadine disinfectant.

But Hameed, 23,
had no training for treating pellet wounds, he said. Ahmed winced in pain as
Hameed used forceps to remove a pellet from his lower back. After several
attempts, he succeeded in extracting a small silver metal ball. Minutes later,
two young men were brought into the room. They knelt down and pulled off their
T-shirts, revealing bloody marks across the front of their torsos where they
had also been hit by pellets. "If we have to live here, we need to know
how to do this," said Hameed.- Reuters