BREAKING NEWS

Pakistani activists blocked in bid to deliver aid to Indian Kashmir

Hundreds of Pakistani supporters of a militant-linked charity tried to cross into the Indian part of the divided Kashmir region on Wednesday to deliver aid after weeks of violent protests there.
But the activists from the Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the charitable arm of the anti-India Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group, did not have permission from either the Pakistani or Indian authorities to cross the contested border and were stopped in a village on the Pakistani side where they staged a protest.
"We will continue the sit-in until these essential food supplies are sent across the divide into the curfew ridden Kashmir valley," Hafiz Abdul Rauf, a senior official of the charity, told Reuters.
The United States designated the charity a "foreign terrorist organization" in 2010. The group denies any militant activity.
The Muslim-majority Himalayan region of Kashmir has been divided since shortly after India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947.