Modi visits Indian-administered Kashmir on local election campaign amid massive security

Associated Press

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting the main city in Himalayan Kashmir to campaign for his party in the staggered local election in the first such vote since New Delhi stripped the disputed region’s semi-autonomy in 2019.  Modi’s visit on Thursday 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 ago. Authorities laid razor wires and erected road checkpoints to close the roads leading to the venue in Srinagar. 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.