Large turnout is expected in a crucial vote for local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir

Large turnout is expected in a crucial vote for local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir
Many people boycotted elections for decades in protest against Indian rule. (AP)
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Updated 17 September 2024
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Large turnout is expected in a crucial vote for local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir

Large turnout is expected in a crucial vote for local government in Indian-controlled Kashmir
  • Many people boycotted elections for decades in protest against Indian rule

SRINAGAR: In Indian-controlled Kashmir, many people boycotted elections for decades in protest against Indian rule. But in the run-up to the local election beginning Wednesday, many are willing to buck that trend and use their vote to deny Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party the power to form a local government in the disputed region.
The vote is the first in a decade, and the first since Modi’s Hindu nationalist government in 2019 scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s special status and downgraded the former state to a federally governed territory. The move — which largely resonated in India and among Modi supporters — was mostly opposed in the region as an assault on its identity and autonomy.
“Boycotts will not work in this election,” said Abdul Rashid, a resident in southern Kashmir’s Shangus village. “There is a desperate need to end the onslaught of changes coming from there (India).”
The election will allow residents to have their own truncated government and a local parliament called an assembly, instead of remaining under New Delhi’s direct rule. The region’s last assembly election was held in 2014, after which Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party for the first time ruled the region in a coalition with the local Peoples Democratic Party.
But the government collapsed in 2018 after BJP withdrew from the coalition. Polls in the past have been marked with violence, boycotts and vote-rigging, even though India called them a victory over separatism.
This time, New Delhi says the polls are ushering in democracy after more than three decades of strife. However, many locals see the vote as an opportunity not only to elect their own representatives but also to register their protest against the 2019 changes.
Polling will be held in three phases. The second and third phases are scheduled for Sept. 25 and Oct. 1. Votes will be counted on Oct. 8, with results expected that day.
Kashmir is divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan. Since 1947, the neighbors have fought two wars over its control, after British rule of the subcontinent ended with the creation of the two countries. Both claim the Himalayan territory in its entirety.
In 2019, the Indian-controlled part of the region was divided into two territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir, ruled directly by New Delhi. The region has been on edge since it lost its flag, criminal code, constitution and inherited protections on land and jobs.
Multiple pro-India Kashmiri parties, many of whose leaders were among thousands jailed in 2019, are contesting the election, promising to reverse those changes. Some lower-rung separatist leaders, who in the past dismissed polls as illegitimate exercises under military occupation, are also running for office as independent candidates.
India’s main opposition Congress party, which favors restoration of the region’s statehood, has formed an alliance with the National Conference, the region’s largest party. Modi’s BJP has a strong political base in Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu that largely favor the 2019 changes but is weak in the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of anti-India rebellion.
“Our main concern is governance through local representatives. It will be good for us if the BJP forms the government here as it’s already in power at the center,” said Chuni Lal, a shopkeeper in Jammu city.
The vote will see a limited transition of power from New Delhi to the local assembly, with a chief minister at the top heading a council of ministers. But Kashmir will continue to be a “Union Territory” — a region directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament remaining its main legislator.
The elected government will have partial control over areas like education, culture and taxation but not over the police. Kashmir’s statehood must be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states in India. However, it will not have the special powers it enjoyed before the 2019 changes.
Last year, India’s Supreme Court endorsed the government’s 2019 changes but ordered New Delhi to conduct local polls by the end of September and restore Kashmir’s statehood. Modi’s government has promised to restore statehood after the polls but has not specified a timeline.
Elections in Indian-held Kashmir have remained a sensitive issue. Many believe they have been rigged multiple times in favor of local politicians who subsequently became India’s regional enforcers, used to incrementally dilute laws that offered Kashmir a special status and legitimize New Delhi’s militaristic policies.
In the mid-1980s, the region’s dissident political groups emerged as a formidable force against Kashmir’s pro-India political elite but lost the 1987 election widely believed to have been rigged. A public backlash followed, with some young activists taking up arms and demanding a united Kashmir, either under Pakistani rule or independent of both.
India insists the insurgency is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism, a charge Islamabad denies. Tens of thousands of people have been killed in the fighting, which most Kashmiri Muslims consider a legitimate freedom struggle.
Noor Ahmed Baba, a political scientist, said the outcome of the polls “is not going to change the dynamics of the Kashmir dispute” since it will end with a largely powerless legislature, but will be crucial for optics.
“If local parties win, it is going to put some pressure on the central government and perhaps delegitimize from a democratic perspective what has been done to Kashmir. But a BJP win can allow the party to consolidate and validate 2019 changes in the local legislature,” Baba said.
India’s ruling BJP is not officially aligned with any local party, but many politicians believe it is tacitly supporting some parties and independent candidates who privately agree with its stances.
The National Conference party says Modi’s BJP is trying to manipulate the election through independent candidates. “Their (BJP’s) concerted effort is to divide the vote in Kashmir,” said Tanvir Sadiq, a candidate from the National Conference.
The BJP’s national secretary, meanwhile, says his party’s former ally, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the National Conference are being supported by former militants. Ram Madhav said at a recent rally that they want to return the region to its “trouble-filled days.”
For residents whose civil liberties have been curbed, the election is also a chance to choose representatives they hope will address their main issues.
Many say that while the election won’t solve the dispute over Kashmir, it will give them a rare window to express their frustration with Indian control.
“We need some relief and end of bureaucratic rule here,” said Rafiq Ahmed, a taxi driver in the region’s main city of Srinagar.


Kyiv arrests Kremlin ‘ideologue’ extradited from Moldova

Updated 7 sec ago
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Kyiv arrests Kremlin ‘ideologue’ extradited from Moldova

Kyiv arrests Kremlin ‘ideologue’ extradited from Moldova
The SBU said Dmytro Chystilin — whom it called an “ideologue” of Moscow’s invasion — was charged with “high treason” and “justification” of Russia’s aggression
“The SBU detained one of the Kremlin’s ideologues of the ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine“

KYIV: Ukraine has arrested a Russian-Ukrainian dual national extradited from Moldova charged with promoting the Kremlin’s invasion, Kyiv’s security service said Tuesday.
The SBU said Dmytro Chystilin — whom it called an “ideologue” of Moscow’s invasion — was charged with “high treason” and “justification” of Russia’s aggression, facing a possible life sentence.
“The SBU detained one of the Kremlin’s ideologues of the ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine,” the security service said in a statement.
It accused Chystilin of “providing assistance” to Russian special services, organizing pro-Moscow conferences in Europe and “interference in election processes in Eastern and Central Europe in favor of Moscow.”
The security service said he was arrested after an event in Moldova when he tried to return to Moscow.
An SBU spokesman, Artem Dekhtyarenko, told AFP that Moldova then extradited Chystilin to Ukraine “over the weekend.”
Dekhtyarenko said he has both Ukrainian and Russian passports.
Ukrainian prosecutors said Chystilin had acted as a Kremlin “mouthpiece” and was detained for “developing and implementing information warfare strategy against Ukraine.”
“While in Moldova, he strengthened the Kremlin’s information influence on the domestic and foreign policy of a sovereign state,” Ukraine’s prosecutor-general said in a statement.
The SBU said Chystilin had also worked as an assistant to Sergei Glazyev, a former Kremlin adviser known for his hawkish positions.
Russian state media quoted a friend of Chystilin, Igor Kaldare, as saying that the dual national was organizing a “regional security” conference in Bucharest and was arrested by Moldovan security services.

Biden cancels trip to Germany and Angola because of hurricane

Biden cancels trip to Germany and Angola because of hurricane
Updated 7 min 59 sec ago
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Biden cancels trip to Germany and Angola because of hurricane

Biden cancels trip to Germany and Angola because of hurricane
  • Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the change was necessary “given the projected trajectory and strength” of the storm

WASHINGTON: President Joe Biden is postponing a planned trip to Germany and Angola to remain at the White House to monitor Hurricane Milton, which is bearing down on Florida’s Gulf Coast, the White House announced on Tuesday.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the change was necessary “given the projected trajectory and strength” of the storm.
It was not clear when the trip might be rescheduled. Biden had promised to go to Africa during his term in office, which ends in January.


UK PM Starmer rules out total ban on arms exports to Israel

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer. (File/Reuters)
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer. (File/Reuters)
Updated 31 min 11 sec ago
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UK PM Starmer rules out total ban on arms exports to Israel

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer. (File/Reuters)
  • Sir Keir warns that defensive weapons must continue to be sent in the face of Iranian threats, proxy activities
  • Remarks come after French President Macron calls for halt on arms sales, demanding a return to a ‘political solution’

LONDON: UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has said he would “never” ban all arms sales to Israel.

The Labour leader made the claim during questions in the House of Commons on Monday, adding he believed Israel has a right to defend itself.

“If the sale of weapons for defensive use by Israel were banned, that is a position I could not countenance a year after Oct 7. It’s not a position I could countenance in the face of attacks by Iran,” Sir Keir told Parliament.

“The idea that we could say we support Israel’s right to defend herself, and at the same time deprive her of the means to do so, is so wholly inconsistent that it will never be my position.”

The UK government suspended 30 arms export licenses to Israel last month over fears they could be used to break international law. However, 32 other licenses remain.

The prime minister received criticism for his stance, with Zarah Sultana MP, currently suspended from the Labour Party, telling Sir Keir to do what is “morally and legally right” and ban “all arms sales” to Israel, including components for F-35 fighter jets.

On Saturday, French President Emmanuel Macron called for a halt on arms exports to Israel after it invaded Lebanon.

“I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza,” he said.

Sir Keir echoed the need for a political solution to the crisis on the anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas on southern Israel.

“Make no mistake, the region can’t take another year of this. All sides must step back from the brink and find the courage of restraint,” Sir Keir said.

US President Joe Biden also used the anniversary to tell Israeli President Isaac Herzog that Washington would “never give up until we bring all of the remaining hostages home safely.”


Norway raises terrorism alert level due to Middle East conflict

Norway raises terrorism alert level due to Middle East conflict
Updated 46 min 7 sec ago
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Norway raises terrorism alert level due to Middle East conflict

Norway raises terrorism alert level due to Middle East conflict
  • Norwegian police officers, who are normally unarmed, will now carry guns nationwide as a result of the decision
  • “It is primarily the threat to Jewish and Israeli targets that has been further intensified,” the statement said

OSLO: Norway has raised its terrorism threat assessment to the second-highest level due to an increased risk of attacks against Jewish and Israeli targets, the national police directorate said on Tuesday.
Norwegian police officers, who are normally unarmed, will now carry guns nationwide as a result of the decision by the PST security service to raise the threat level, the directorate said.
“PST raises the terror threat level in Norway from moderate to high as a result of the ongoing escalation of the conflict in the Middle East,” the police said in a statement.
“It is primarily the threat to Jewish and Israeli targets that has been further intensified,” the statement said.
National Police Commissioner Benedicte Bjoernland said there was an increased likelihood of attempted terrorism.
.”..we have a number of measures in place to protect the population,” she said in a statement.
Neighbouring Sweden in August last year raised its terrorist alert to the second-highest level after Qur'an burnings outraged Muslims and triggered threats from militants.


UK spy boss highlights surge in children linked to terror plots

UK spy boss highlights surge in children linked to terror plots
Updated 08 October 2024
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UK spy boss highlights surge in children linked to terror plots

UK spy boss highlights surge in children linked to terror plots
  • MI5 boss Ken McCallum said that Russian intelligence was seeking to cause ‘mayhem’ in Britain
  • Under-18s represent 13 percent of people being investigated by the spy agency for possible involvement in terror activities

LONDON: The chief of Britain’s domestic intelligence service on Tuesday blamed extreme right-wing ideologies for a “staggering” rise in the number of children being investigated for terrorism.
MI5 boss Ken McCallum also said that Russian intelligence was seeking to cause “mayhem” in Britain because of its support for Ukraine and that his agency had investigated growing numbers of Iran-backed plots.
Under-18s represent 13 percent of people being investigated by the spy agency for possible involvement in terror activities, McCallum said.
He told reporters at MI5’s Counter Terrorism Operations Center in London that the number marked “a threefold increase in the last three years.”
McCallum said the Internet was the “biggest factor” driving the rise, describing how easily youngsters can access “inspirational and instructional material” from their bedrooms.
He said the intelligence service was seeing “far too many cases where very young people are being drawn into poisonous online extremism” and singled out “canny” Internet memes.
“Extreme right-wing terrorism in particular skews heavily toward young people, driven by propaganda that shows a canny understanding of online culture,” he added.
“It’s not really a consistent single ideology on the extreme right-wing side and that is what has skewed the numbers most heavily.”
The UK terrorist threat level remains at “substantial” — the third highest on five — meaning an attack is likely.
MI5 and the police have disrupted more than 40 late-stage attack plots since March 2017, saving “numerous lives,” McCallum said.
He added that the Daesh group had “resumed efforts to export terrorism” and that in the last year inquiries into plots by hostile states had surged by 48 percent.
According to McCallum, Russia’s intelligence service had tried to cause “mayhem” in the UK because of Britain’s support for Ukraine.
Meanwhile, MI5 has responded to 20 Iran-backed plots since January 2022 that presented potentially lethal threats to British citizens and UK residents, he added.