“Even if Kashmir has begun to attract tourists, it remains first and foremost a police state,†Basharat Peer wrote in the article in the Latitude Blog. He reached this conclusion after hearing the story of 12-year-old Faizan Sofi, who was detained under the Public Safety Act, “which allows the Indian government to arrest and detain, for up to two years, anyone suspected of threatening the public order.â€
Faizan was charged with involvement in the torching of a police jeep in Srinagar on Aug. 21, which left three policemen injured. The incident took place after a separatist leader, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who was under house arrest, managed to address an Eid congregation by phone, inciting pro tests.
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