Pakistan, July 21 -- The sight of the elected chief minister of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir protesting in New Delhi exposes the emptiness of India's claims that the territory has been politically normalised. Hundreds joined Omar Abdullah and National Conference leaders on Monday to demand restoration of the statehood unilaterally withdrawn in August 2019. However, police restrictions on that protest supplied their own answer to New Delhi's repeated assertions of democratic integration.

Seven years have passed since India revoked the territory's limited constitutional autonomy, abrogated Articles 370 and 35A and divided the former state into the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. Elections were eventually h...