India engaged in a diplomatic war of words with China over Kashmir on Thursday as it formally revoked the disputed state's constitutional autonomy and split it into two federal territories in a bid to integrate it fully into India.
Shops and offices were shut in Muslim-majority Kashmir and the streets largely deserted in its main city Srinagar as new administrators were sworn into office in the biggest restructuring of the 173-year-old former princely kingdom of Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan, which claims the whole of Kashmir, has condemned the move and protesters took to the streets on its part of the territory.