One of the protesters, Mohammad Nawaz, said, “We are protesting for the article which has been taken away from us. We have no information regarding our families, whether they are dead or alive. We have literally no communication (with them). We’ve gone back to the medieval period.”

While schools have been reopened in Kathua in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IoK), the Kashmiri people still suffer under strict curfews imposed by the Indian government. According to First Post, Jammu and Kashmir Governor – Satya Pal Malik has asked deputy commissioners in Kashmir to provide ration including medicines to the Kashmiri people as well as planned visits to families in the Valley region.

Few Indian students from Government Degree College have welcomed this decision uniting IoK with the rest of India, with one student saying: “Now we get freedom from the clutches of cruel leaders," according to The Asian Age.

The Diplomatic Bureau of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) strongly condemned the Indian government’s decision as JKLF Head, Professor Zafar Khan said: “August 05, 2019 for ever will be etched in the memory of people in Jammu and Kashmir as a Black Day as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ultra-chauvinist henchmen deviously contrived to replicate a Palestine-like situation, particularly in the valley of Kashmir to engineer a demographic change.”

In his statement today, UN Chief Stephane Dujarric highlighted the Simla Agreement (1972) which states that “…the final status of Jammu and Kashmir is to be settled by peaceful means in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.”, establishing the need for bilateral negotiations on this matter which India has labeled a “domestic issue”.