INDIA’S prime minister promised peace and development for Jammu and Kashmir last Sunday (24), during his first public event in the region since it imposed a sweeping security clampdown nearly three years ago.
Narendra Modi’s bharatiya Janata Party-led government has sought to quell a long-running insurgency in Indian Kashmir and strengthen its hold over the region, which is also claimed by Pakistan.
India nullified the area’s limited autonomy in August 2019, when authorities arrested thousands and imposed the world’s longest internet shutdown, seeking to forestall local opposition to the move.
Tight security was in place for Modi’s appearance at Palli village in Jammu, the Hindu-majority southern part of the territory, which celebrated New Delhi’s introduction of direct rule as a defence against Kashmir’s separatist movement.
As he inaugurated new road and hydropower projects, Modi told the gathered crowd of thousands his government had put the region on the path to prosperity. “I want to tell the youth of the valley that they will not have to face the difficulties and travails that their parents and grandparents had to deal with,” Modi said.
Last Sunday’s event marked Panchayati Raj, a day that commemorates grassroots democracy – although Kashmir has been without an elected regional government since 2018. Its last chief minister was detained during the clampdown and only released more than a year later.
The 2019 changes also opened land ownership, jobs and local university places in Kashmir to all Indians - privileges which had been earlier reserved for the territory’s permanent residents.
Modi’s government has long said its decision to end Kashmir’s limited autonomy was aimed at fostering a lasting peace and bringing investment into the troubled region, where tens of thousands of people have been killed over the years.
Today, it is the most militarised part of India, with more than half a million soldiers and paramilitaries deployed across the fractious territory.
Police say violence has declined since Kashmir’s status was changed, but almost 1,000 people have been killed since 2019 - among them soldiers, militants and civilians. Militants threw grenades at a bus carrying security forces last Friday (22), killing an officer, in an incident around 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the venue of Modi’s public appearance.
Two suspected rebels were killed in the ensuing firefight with security forces. (AFP)
Some panic-stricken commuters reportedly considered jumping off the trains, but were eventually rescued safely (PTI photo)
