Security personnel patrolling in Srinagar, the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. (Tauseef Mustafa/AFP)
A
tourist couple was injured in India’s Kashmir after militants fired on them
late on Saturday night, police said, ahead of voting scheduled in the volatile
region for India’s ongoing election.
The
couple from the Indian city of Jaipur was evacuated to the hospital and the
area where the attack took place was cordoned off, Kashmir police said on
social media. The condition of the injured tourists is said to be stable, they
said.
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India
is in the middle of a marathon election with the remaining two seats in Kashmir
going to polls on 20 and 25 May.
Voters
turned out in large numbers for polling in the first seat in Srinagar on 13 May,
reversing the trend of low vote counts in the first polls since Prime Minister
Narendra Modi removed the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019.
Modi’s
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is skipping elections in Kashmir for the first
time since 1996, saying it will support regional parties instead.
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Major
parties in Kashmir, the National Conference and People’s Democratic Party
(PDP), have focused on restoration of semi-autonomy in their campaigns.
Analysts
and opposition parties say the BJP is not contesting elections in Kashmir
because it fears the outcome will contradict its narrative of a more peaceful
and integrated region since 2019.
In
a separate incident, unknown militants shot dead former village headman and BJP
party member Ajiaz Ahmad Sheikh in Shopian district on Saturday.
The
last major attack on tourists in Kashmir had happened in 2017, when a Hindu
pilgrimage bus was targeted, killing eight people.
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