the subcontractors. and investigative documentary goes to conciliate country and looks beyond the glamorous facade of. picturing. starts non-membership t w. this is the w. news asia coming up india formally strips kashmir of semi autonomy and brings it under the control of delhi look at ongoing tensions in the disputed region and the anger over we said visit by far right you lawmakers was it all just a p.r. stunt. and protesters march on pakistan's capital to demand that the prime minister step down we'll tell you why. plus fire destroys one of japan's national treasures the 500 year old sherry castle.

i'm melissa chan you're watching news asia thank you for joining us india officially changes the status of kashmir today thursday it is now no longer in autonomous state and instead has been split into 2 federally controlled territories one is called jadwin kashmir and the other is le duc. indian prime minister narendra modi made the decision back in august since that announcement the region's been under lockdown with no internet local politicians arrested and limited information filtering out some of what we know is coming unexpectedly from european visitors. indian administered kashmir news of the european lawmakers imminent arrival sparked angry protests

across the region 3 months into delhi security lockdown tensions remain at boiling point. more than 80 days of protests but no one's paying attention people are getting killed slaughtered everything is closed there's a communications lockdown. in delhi the any peace will welcome personally by prime minister narendra modi sponsored by an obscure think tank the group was dominated by far right deputies the e.u.'s stressed this is not an official visit still modi had support for his tough line. even though of the biggest is the end. of globalisation it as. the fight. critics have slammed the visit to kashmir as a p.r. stunt meant to blunt the global outrage. from the airport to your m.p.'s risk or

through to a high end hotel for talks. later while the delegates enjoyed allegedly boat ride on da like. kashmir saw one of its deadliest attacks in months. in cool gum militants killed 5 men all construction workers from eastern india fi e.u. delegation said they supported delis efforts to restore peace to the region. i do see that the security situation is still. stressful and not as a test in other parts of this country are germany are in europe but i don't accept that this is going to be solved. the european lawmakers have rejected criticism of their visit saying they simply wanted to assess the situation in kashmir you know position parties are asking why they're not being given the same access we have any

should judge while in delhi to guide us through this messy affair and ameesha that european delegation consisted mostly of far right members and i can't help but wonder whether in some ways they were used as props by modi here are the europeans to justify his unilateral actions. well that's definitely true release of a this meeting this visit has raised a lot of questions that was all denies by everyone who identifies herself as an international business broker and n.g.o.s and the e.u. itself has distanced itself from the visit saying that it is not an official visit many indian embassy is over hugh were not aware of this visit even happening and one british and the is one of the few liberals who was invited has said that when he artful unfettered access to push his invitation was rescinded and of course this

is widely been criticized as a very controlled for tall people who met the ne these were handpicked by the government the more the government put out a statement saying that they hoped that the european and see the region for governance and development that india has and it seems that of the press conference following that was that the m.p.'s mostly said that they said that this support india's fight against and nothing more. now the region is federally controlled what does that actually mean what happens next. but melissa the state's autonomy basically has not only been brought down because of the removal of the special status of questioning in the state actually now it's sleet is has even less a taunt to me than are the indian states because it is no longer a state it is what is called in india a union ted to treat this means that legislate this control he will primarily be be carried out from new delhi itself the president which was

a lieutenant governor as opposed to how are the states functioned there very be a legislature in place in the going into tree of them would need not want to live doc but basically a lot of decisions making far lies in the hands of when it comes to doing into trees of jump when bush meat and the duck and what can pakistan do in this. well not very much melissa ever since the approbation all sections the 70 the reading down off the special status of push me pakistan has been very has insisted a very strong need to internationalize the issue it has asked for the un the us other people to weigh in but not much has been has been made possible that has been criticism coming in from some international fronts but otherwise darkest on is not able to do much apart from cause and hold bilateral nations and break ties as far as it can with india i want to go back to the video report and something that the

kashmiri said he said people are dying what's actually going on with violence in that region right now. fabulous and we talked about the communication blackout and there is difficulty in getting information out it is important to state that the indian army insists the vet has been enormous loss of life in the last 3 months since the special status was removed however there are reports of the contrary that are media reports saying that pellet gun firings that have happened at the hands of the indian home you have caused deaths the army denies this is the clear that is a concern though that what is seen as a stronger crackdown would increase homegrown militarization homegrown terrorism in the region. as well thank you pakistan's prime minister iran concious is the 1st major challenge to his leadership as tens of thousands of demonstrators converge in the country's capital to protest the lead instigator is. a powerful religious leader who questions the

results of the election that handed con his victory islamic bodies nervous about the size of crowds and violence it has deployed extra security around government buildings joining us is d.w. is shanel shams shammal how serious is this threat against khan's government. well you see when hundreds of thousands of right wing protesters descend on the capital islamabad the threat is bound to be done. we have seen in the past that these so-called normal sit ins can be very threatening about whether these protesters will be able to force being home to resign depends on the sustainability of these demonstrations and more importantly when the country's powerful army support beam come if the opposition can sustain the protest the army probably could change its mind about the pm. now other than being anti kind of course don't just

talk about the problems come with solutions is something we hear a lot of so what is the opposition proposing in terms of alternatives in terms of their platform to solve solve of the country's problems while the main opposition parties of former prime minister nawaz sharif and former president asif ali zardari are not very active in these protests both sharif and their dari are facing corruption charges and on under detention the main reason is that the army must not interfere in politics all open opposition bodies allege their congress is brought to power by the army so the all done and division in short is based on one principle the civilian supremacy in pakistan. now khan's been in power for just a year the country's facing double digit inflation and high unemployment has his administration done anything to fix those problems. well last year on the

promise to improve the country's economy and provide jobs but he has so far north been able to deliver inflation has climbed to 8 person the rupee has lost a 3rd of its value over the past year and foreign exchange reserves are barely enough to go about 2 months of imports inmate comes the government was forced to turn to the i.m.f. for a bailout package the i.m.f. says stuff below conditions have been very unpopular and analysts say the opposition is now ready to use the public anger to move on from both and i want to circle back to something you said about momentum we've seen protests around the world really gain traction recently do you expect this rally to be a one off or do you think we'll start seeing more opposition rallies in the next few weeks but pakistan's a jew political and domestic dynamics are quite different let's say from that of on

guns the country the protests we are facing there is no our best of public anger against the government it is the grooves their daughter involved in the baba game right people may be genuinely unhappy with the government's economic policies but there is no genuine people's movement in pakistan at the moment so what is happening at the moment there is much of brokering happening at the moment i'm sorry but i believe it could be it could transform into larger protests but we have to wait and see got it channel shams thank you japan is mourning the loss of a nest co world heritage site sherry castle on the island of okinawa a fire started overnight and while firefighters managed to put out the flames they were unable to save large parts of the popular tourist attraction. a piece of okinawa's cultural heritage devoured by flames firefighters battled the blaze for

over 10 hours but they could not save the main hole though sheree caso has stood on this site for over 500 years this is not the 1st time it's been destroyed it was reduced to ashes during the battle of okinawa in 1945 it's reconstruction was an important step in the island's struggle to recover from the ravages of world war 2 but now the castle has been lost again no one was injured in thursday's blaze but for the residents the toll is emotional. stickler this was the cherie castle i saw growing up and the sherry castle that was always nearby it's really sad i have no words so. we're going to look at $900.00. it's really okinawa's cultural heritage and for that it's painful to see you know. the site had reopened in 1992 it was

a major tourist attraction in the area it was going to be a planned stop on the olympic torch relay route during the olympic games in tokyo scheduled for 2020 the japanese government has already vowed to restore the call so to its former glory. that is our show for today see you next time and goodbye. the people who for information. opinions to express. on facebook and twitter up to date and in touch.

we want to entire book now travel now amazing thailand's. official confirms hong kong is in recession just says that too. gas is released again on pro-democracy protesters defying a ban on mosques this halloween. a new wave of consolidation in the car industry here price lampito once you create the world's full flanges the remake of. kashmir cut off from the global tourism market for just a couple months now open again for business but the damage is being done to its most important industry. i've been fizzling it's a business done

a mosque it's halloween but there is a ban on them in hong kong still that's not stopping demonstrators from joining in celebrations at the same time is continuing their campaign to preserve the territories autonomy from china others are painting their faces officials say they won't force anyone to wipe off the makeup unless they look suspicious whatever the case the political turmoil is hurting tourism and trade hong kong is now in recession its worst showing since the global financial crisis course mr product shrank by just over 3 percent in the 3rd quarter. 5 months of unrest and political uncertainty have piled immense pressure on the economy it was already reeling from the impact.