Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a crucial meeting with pro-India politicians from Jammu & Kashmir on June 24 for the first time since New Delhi stripped the region’s semi-autonomy and jailed many of them in a crackdown. No major decision was announced after the meeting and many Kashmiri leaders said they reiterated their demand that New Delhi should reverse its 2019 changes. (Image: AP)
Among those invited were Kashmir’s former three top elected officials: Farooq Abdullah, his son Omar Abdullah, and Mehbooba Mufti, who was a regional coalition partner of Bharatiya Janata Party for nearly two years after the 2016 state elections. (Image: AP
The Kashmiri alliance stuck to their demands and said they told Modi during the meeting that the region’s semi-autonomous powers should be restored. (Image: Twitter @ANI
Several other leaders, however, steered away from demanding a restoration of the special status and said they instead stressed an early restoration of statehood, the holding of an election and land and employment security for people. (Image: Twitter @narendramodi)
