Residents in India-controlled Kashmir vote in the second phase of polls surrounded by heavy security

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — 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 are eligible to elect 26 of the 239 candidates in six districts, including in the biggest regional main city of Srinagar, where voters in some polling booths queued outside early in the morning.

It is the first such election in a decade, and the first since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s semi-autonomy in 2019. 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.

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The third phase is scheduled for Oct. 1 and