Residents in India-controlled Kashmir vote in second phase of polls

(25 Sep 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Srinagar, Indian Controlled Kashmir - 25 September 2024
1. Various of a soldier standing guard as people wait to cast their vote
2. Various of people waiting
3. SOUNDBITE (Urdu) Mehraj Ud Din, Voter:
"The people have come to cast their vote for Statehood and Article 370. Development will occur, including better roads, electricity and water supply, as it is our basic right.Today, people have come to vote so that Statehood and Article 370 will be restored."
4. SOUNDBITE (Kashmiri) Bashir Ahmed, Voter:
"Today, we have voted against the decision of scrapping Article 370, as people are facing suppression. Our resources, such as electricity and other projects, should benefit us, but instead they are being sold, leaving us with nothing. We have come here to elect representatives who will try to resolve these issues."
5. Various of voters waiting
6. Various of soldiers standing guard at a polling station
STORYLINE:
Under elaborate security, residents in Indian-controlled Kashmir began casting their votes Wednesday in the second phase of a staggered election for a local government.
About 2.6 million residents in Kashmir are eligible to elect 26 of the 239 candidates in six districts, including in the biggest regional main city of Srinagar. Voters in some polling booths waited outside early in the morning.
It is the first such election in a decade, and the first since India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s semi-autonomy in 2019 when he revoked Article 370 of India’s constitution by presidential order. The law conferred special rights to permanent residents of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Today in Srinagar, some voters turned up in support of restoring statehood.
The former state was also downgraded and divided into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. Both are ruled directly by New Delhi, allowing it to appoint administrators to run them along unelected bureaucrats and security setup.
The region has since been on edge with civil liberties curbed and media freedoms gagged.
The vote also comes for the first time in over three decades without any boycott call from separatists who challenge Indian’s sovereignty over Kashmir. Polls in the past have been marked with violence, boycotts and vote-rigging, even though India called them a victory over separatism.
Authorities erected checkpoints and laid razor wire in the voting districts as government forces wearing flak jackets and carrying assault rifles patrolled the constituencies.
The third phase is scheduled for Oct. 1 and votes will be counted on Oct. 8, with results expected that day. Voting began Sept. 18 with about 59% voter turnout in what the region’s chief electoral officer said was an “incident-free and peaceful" first round of polls.
Authorities have limited access of foreign media to polling stations and denied press credentials to most journalists working with international media, including to The Associated Press, without citing any reason.
India and Pakistan each administer part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
AP video shot by Mehraj ud Din
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