Sister, daughter of Farooq Abdullah held: India blocks SMS services

Text messaging services were blocked in Indian Occupied Kashmir just hours after being restored when a truck driver was killed by suspected fighters and his vehicle set ablaze, authorities said Tuesday. Separately, Indian officials said a 24-year-old woman died in the latest exchange of artillery fire with Pakistan over LoC.

Three people - a father and his two children aged 10 and 11 - were martyred in a Pakistani district next to the Line of Control after mortar shells hit their homes, officials said on Tuesday. Indian security sources said the decision to cut text messaging services was taken to reduce the ability of fighters to communicate. Authorities had only restored call and text services for mobile phones on Monday, following a 72-day blackout in the restive northern territory imposed after New Authorities said SMS services were cut again on Monday night following the attack on the driver of a truck carrying apples in Shopian.

Residents said two masked gunmen told the driver to use his truck to block the road, but it skidded and got stuck. "The gunmen then fired at the truck and set it on fire," a witness told AFP. Many orchard owners say they are refusing to harvest this year to protest against the government's move to scrap Occupied Kashmir's autonomy. Also on Tuesday, police arrested 13 women activists in Occupied Srinagar after they staged a protest calling for civil liberties and the release of detainees.

The women, wearing black armbands, were arrested for "breaching the peace" and for contravening a ban in place since early August on public gatherings of more than four people, police said. They included the sister and daughter of former chief minister Farooq Abdullah, one of several hundred local politicians, lawyers and others in custody since early August, mostly without charge.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2019