Kashmir has been disputed territory since 1947, when India and Pakistan won independence from British rule. Each claimed Kashmir and they have fought two of their three wars over it, with each now administering part of it. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video The nuclear rivals approached war again in February, when a suicide bombing in Indian-administered Kashmir killed 40 paramilitary soldiers. India responded by bombing an alleged terrorist training camp in Pakistan. The response was meant to signal Modi's hard-line stance on Kashmir, where soldiers are authorised to shoot civilian demonstrators with marbles and pellets, blinding some people. The Indian government has also regularly cracked down on communications, especially in the Himalayan region where most people oppose Indian rule and want independence or a merger with Pakistan.

India leads the world in the number of internet shutdowns, according to the US non-profit Freedom House, and communication blackouts in Kashmir under Modi have become commonplace. Of the 340 total internet shutdowns in India since 2014, more than half were centred there, including 55 this year, according to the New Delhi-based Software Freedom Law Center. Loading The government usually cuts internet services ahead of expected uprisings, citing the British colonial-era Indian Telegraph Act of 1885 "in the interest of public safety and for maintaining public order", according to the centre's executive director, Sundar Krishnan. The shutdowns have a compounding effect, disrupting business and education and demoralising people. "It's obstructing the free flow of information but it's also bringing many elements of a modern society to a grinding halt," Krishnan said. As New Delhi deployed tens of thousands of additional troops early this month to reinforce its control in Kashmir - already one of the world's most militarised regions - India's foreign ministry escorted foreign journalists, including a reporter with The Associated Press, to a Hindu pilgrimage site elsewhere in the region. Officials billed it as an opportunity for journalists to see a side of Kashmir beyond the protests and clashes.

Days later the government evacuated the pilgrims and the communications curtain in Kashmir came down. Since then no foreign journalists have been permitted entry to Kashmir. Loading On August 7, with an indefinite curfew and a ban on public assembly imposed, a news video showed a chaotic protest with the sound of shots fired. On Twitter, Jammu and Kashmir police slammed the video as "completely fabricated and incorrect", a description repeated by India's home and foreign ministries. "The situation is calm, people are cooperative, and restrictions are being relaxed to ease the situation," the police tweeted.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Garima Paul posted a link to a TV interview with a sympathetic Indian broadcaster in which S.P. Pani, the inspector-general of Kashmir police, denied media reports of police firing there. Journalists work inside a media centre set up by Jammu and Kashmir authorities in Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir. Credit:AP The government later conceded that the news video wasn't fake but continued to maintain that no protest involving more than 20 people had taken place, despite video evidence to the contrary. On August 10, the start of the three-day Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha, India's foreign ministry released a slew of photos and videos. In one, an aerial shot showed brisk vehicle traffic on a bridge. Another showed a busy square in Srinagar, the region's main city, and another a crowded intersection on the road leading to Srinagar's famed attraction, Dal Lake. Another was labelled Pulwama, one of Kashmir's most restive districts, and showed streets humming with activity and not a soldier or barricade in sight. None of these scenes matched independent news reports.

The curfew was briefly eased for Islamic Friday prayers, but the following morning, many people remained indoors, with shops and most health clinics closed. A YouTube music video titled "Dhara 370" or "Article 370," referring to a part of India's Constitution relating to Kashmir, shows a map of the disputed region and PM Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and singer Praveen Samrat. Credit:AP Another set of images released by the foreign ministry on August 12 depicted men and boys kneeling in prayer outside mosques in Jammu and Kashmir. But some of the region's largest mosques were closed, and others in the government videos were mislabelled, purporting to show mosques in Kashmir but actually showing worshippers in Jammu, where the Hindu-majority population supports the government's moves. Worried that the world was getting a distorted view, Kashmir Times executive editor Anuradha Bhasin filed a Supreme Court petition demanding an end to the communications restrictions, which she said were hampering the work of her staff. The court on Wednesday ordered the government to reply to the petition within seven days. By limiting the ability of journalists to report on the region, she said, the coverage of Kashmir has been overwhelmingly biased in favour of Modi.