Narendra Modi visits Indian-controlled Kashmir amid tight security

SRINAGAR, India: India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Himalayan Kashmir for his first public occasion on Sunday since New Delhi stripped the disputed area’s semi-autonomy and took direct management in 2019.
Modi arrived amid huge safety and is scheduled to talk in a public occasion and evaluation improvement work. His speech can be a part of a operate to commemorate the annual Panchayati Raj, or grassroots democracy, Day.
Tens of 1000’s of individuals and elected officers from native councils throughout the area assembled in Palli village close to Jammu metropolis for the speech. The realm visited by Modi typically welcomed the Indian authorities’s unprecedented modifications three years in the past.
Officers say the councils characterize grassroots governance however its members don’t have any legislative powers. The area has been with out an elected authorities since 2018.
Authorities forces fanned out throughout Kashmir to thwart any violence. On Friday, two suspected militants and a paramilitary officer had been killed in a gunfight some 15 kilometers from Palli.
Police chief Dilbag Singh mentioned the slain militants had been a “suicide squad from Pakistan” doubtless despatched to sabotage Modi’s go to. He didn’t supply any proof to again up his declare.
Modi’s two earlier visits after Kashmir’s standing was modified had been to army camps to rejoice a Hindu competition with troopers. In 2019, Modi’s authorities revoked the area’s semi-autonomous standing, annulled its separate structure, break up the world into two federal territories — Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir — and eliminated inherited protections on land and jobs amid unprecedented lockdown.
The area has remained on edge since, as authorities put in place a slew of latest legal guidelines that critics and lots of residents concern might change majority-Muslim Kashmir’s demographics.
Kashmir is split between India and Pakistan and each rivals declare the area in its entirety. Rebels have been preventing in opposition to Indian rule since 1989. Most Muslim Kashmiris assist the insurgent aim that the territory be united both underneath Pakistani rule or as an impartial nation.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the cost, and most Kashmiris contemplate it a reliable freedom wrestle. Tens of 1000’s of civilians, rebels and authorities forces have been killed within the battle.