Government documents fear letters about special status known as Bucher papers could affect foreign relations

India may prevent the declassification of papers from 1947 related to Kashmir as it fears the “sensitive” letters could affect foreign relations, according to internal government documents seen by the Guardian.

The letters, known as the Bucher papers, are believed to include political and military arguments for why India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, called for a ceasefire with Pakistan and provided special status to the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Sanna Irshad Mattoo says she was barred from taking a flight to New York where she was scheduled to receive the 2022 Pulitzer Prize

Indian authorities have been criticised after a Kashmiri photojournalist said she was barred from taking a flight to New York where she was scheduled to receive the 2022 Pulitzer prize.

Sanna Irshad Mattoo, 27, was in a team of Reuters photographers who had won a Pulitzer for feature photography for their coverage of the coronavirus crisis in India.

Thousands rescued from makeshift camps in Himalayas after sudden deluge in Indian-controlled region

Emergency workers rescued thousands of pilgrims after flash floods swept through their makeshift camps during an annual Hindu pilgrimage to a Himalayan cave in Indian-controlled Kashmir, killing at least 16 people and injuring dozens, officials said.

Authorities suspended the pilgrimage for two days as the sudden rains continued to lash the region. Teams of rescuers from India’s military, paramilitary and police as well as disaster management officials combed through the slippery mountain tracks and used thermal imaging devices, sniffer dogs and radars to locate dozens of missing people. Civilian and military helicopters evacuated the injured to hospitals.

Indian police say four men killed in shootout were militants but families say gunfight was staged and they were innocent civilians

Tensions in the Indian state of Kashmir remain on a knife edge after a shootout by the Indian authorities this week left four people dead, with families alleging the gunfight was staged and that police used innocent civilians as a “human shield”.

Police initially described the incident, which took place on Monday when officers raided a shopping complex, as a counter-insurgency operation in which two militants and their associates had been killed in a shootout.