Modi visits Indian-controlled Kashmir on local election campaign

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the main city in Himalayan Kashmir on Thursday to campaign for his party in the local election, the first such vote since New Delhi stripped the disputed region’s semi-autonomy in 2019.

Modi’s visit to Srinagar city in the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of decades of anti-India rebellion, comes amid strong public opposition there to New Delhi’s changes five years back. That move revoked the region’s semi-autonomous status, annulled its separate constitution, downgraded and split the former state into two centrally governed union territories— Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir — and removed inherited protections on land and jobs.

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Authorities laid razor wires and erected road checkpoints to close the roads leading to the venue of Modi’s election rally in Srinagar’s main commercial center. Armed paramilitary troops and police in flak jackets patrolled the area, snipers and sharpshooters were positioned atop buildings near the venue.

“We have said in the parliament that we will restore (the region’s) statehood. Only BJP will fulfill this commitment,” Modi said to a cheering crowd at the rally while referring to his Bharatiya Janata Party.

Since 1947, Kashmir has been at the heart of conflict between India and Pakistan after British rule of the subcontinent ended with the creation of the two rival countries. Both administer part of it but claim the territory in its entirety.

Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the insurgency is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, a charge Islamabad denies. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting, which most Kashmiri Muslims consider a legitimate freedom struggle.

Thursday’s visit was Modi’s second to the Muslim-majority region to campaign for his party candidates in the ongoing election. Voting began on Wednesday, with a brisk turnout in the first phase.

The vote is the first in a decade, and the first since his Hindu nationalist government’s 2019 move. Kashmir’s pro-India political parties have promised to fight to undo those changes.

Last week, Modi addressed a similar rally in southern Doda district.

The second and third phases of the polling are scheduled for Sept. 25 and Oct. 1. The process is staggered for logistical reasons and to allow troops to move around to stop potential violence in the Himalayan region. Votes will be counted on Oct. 8, with results expected that day.