IOK sees more than $2.4 billion losses since lockdown

A lockdown in Indian-occupied Kashmir has cost its economy more than $2.4 billion since the government stripped it of its special status, officials of the Himalayan region's main trade organisation said on Wednesday.

"In the last 120 days we have witnessed how each and every sector has bled ... we fear this crisis will further intensify in 2020," Sheikh Ashiq Ahmed, president of the occupied Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), told Reuters.

Sectors directly dependent on the internet such as information technology and e-commerce had been "ruined" since the lockdown began in early August, the group said in a report.

"The Indian government justified its decision on the pretext of developing Kashmir. The loss borne by locals are a direct result of government's decision ... the federal government must compensate us," Ahmed said.

The 85-year-old chamber of commerce includes more than 1,500 large business owners, commodity traders and exporters.

In conducting its survey, it had to send staff out to meet traders and entrepreneurs in person as telephone links were not operating.