In a letter to Pompeo dated September 11, Pramila Jayapal, the first and the only Indian-American Congresswoman in the House of Representatives, and Congressman James P McGovern said the international media and independent human rights observers must immediately be allowed into Jammu and Kashmir to investigate reports of abuse.
"We urge you to work across the Administration to press the Indian Government to immediately end its communications blackout of Kashmir, expedite the process of reviewing and releasing individuals 'preventatively' detained, ensure hospitals have access to life-saving medicines and protect the rights of the Kashmiri people to freedom of assembly and worship," reads the letter.
The two lawmakers told Pompeo that they have significant concerns about the humanitarian and human rights "crisis" in Kashmir.
"In particular, we are concerned about credible reports from journalists and advocates on the ground that the Indian government has detained thousands of people with no recourse, imposed defacto curfews and cut off internet and telephone access on the region," they said.
Restrictions were imposed when New Delhi had on August 5 scrapped the state's special status under Article 370 of the Constitution and bifurcated in into Union territories -- Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.
"We also urged the Indian Government at its highest levels to make it clear that religious tolerance long a principle of Indian history and democracy must be upheld," the two lawmakers wrote in the letter.
Tagging the letter in a tweet, Jayapal said: "I continue to be deeply concerned about credible reports of a humanitarian crisis in Jammu & Kashmir. Even in complex situations, we look to strong democratic allies like India to uphold basic human rights and due process."
Most of the top-level and second-rung separatist politicians of Jammu and Kashmir have been taken into preventive custody while mainstream leaders, including two former chief ministers -- Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, have been either detained or placed under house arrest in view of the Centre's decision to revoke special status to Jammu and Kashmir and splitting the state into two Union Territories.
"We continue to press for the release of detainees for the full restoration of everyday services, but most importantly, for a roadmap to the restoration of political and economic normalcy," said Acting Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Alice G Wells.
The US remains "deeply concerned" about the situation in the Valley where daily life of nearly eight million residents has been severely impacted since the decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir's special status and to "detain without charge" political leaders and restrict communications, Wells said in an interaction with reporters at Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.
"We've seen progress, for example, four million postpaid mobile phone users have had service restored, but SMS and internet is restricted," she said.
Internet services across all platforms continued to be snapped in the Valley since the night of August 4, hours before the Centre announced its decision to abrogate Article 370 provisions that gave special status to Jammu and Kashmir and split the state into two UTs, officials in Srinagar said.
The internet services were snapped along with mobile and landline telephone services. While the landline telephone services were restored gradually first, the postpaid mobile services were restored only last week. The prepaid services continued to remain barred.
Noting that journalists have extensively covered developments in Kashmir, Wells said the role of some of the international reporters have been particularly important, but journalists continue to face challenges in access while reporting due to the security restrictions.
Wells said terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Hizbul Mujahideen "obviously are the problem".
"In this vein, we welcome (Pakistan) Prime Minister (Imran) Khan's unambiguous statement in September that anyone who crosses from Pakistan to carry out violence in Kashmir are enemies of both Pakistan and the Kashmiri people," she said.
"The constructive dialogue that we'd like to see between India and Pakistan must be based on Pakistan taking sustained and irreversible steps against militants and terrorists in its territory," Wells said.
President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo have met and spoken with their Indian and Pakistani counterparts multiple times and all sides have the responsibility to create the conditions in Kashmir for dialogue including avoiding heated and unhelpful rhetoric, she said.