India bans key highway in Kashmir for 2 days a week

SRINAGAR, India – Authorities in Indian-controlled Kashmir have begun enforcing a government ban on the movement of civilian vehicles for two days a week on a key highway to keep it open exclusively for military and paramilitary convoys.

Indian soldiers patrolled the highway and erected barricades by steel and razor wire at intersections with neighborhood roads in disputed Kashmir to stop any civilian vehicular movement on Sunday.

India's government issued the order on Wednesday reserving the 270-kilometer (170-mile) stretch of the highway for the exclusive movement of government forces convoys on Sundays and Wednesdays until the end of May.

The order follows a recent suicide bombing of a paramilitary convoy that killed 40 soldiers and brought rivals India and Pakistan to the brink of war.