New lawmakers in Indian Kashmir seek restoration of partial autonomy

By Fayaz Bukhari

SRINAGAR (Reuters) - Newly-elected lawmakers in India's Jammu and Kashmir territory passed a resolution on Wednesday demanding New Delhi restore the partial autonomy of the Himalayan region, a contentious move Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is likely to reject.

Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government revoked Jammu and Kashmir's partial autonomy in 2019, splitting the state into the two federally administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.

The decision was opposed by opposition parties, and many people were detained in 2019 to forestall a backlash against the shock move.

Modi's government also imposed months of curbs on communications in the highly sensitive Kashmir Valley, where tens of thousands have been killed in a decades-long insurgency against Indian rule.

On Wednesday, Jammu and Kashmir's newly-elected ruling alliance passed the resolution seeking the restoration, despite protests by BJP lawmakers.

"This legislative assembly re-affirms the importance of the special status and constitutional guarantees which safeguarded the identity, culture and rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and expresses concern over their unilateral removal," it said.

Only the federal government can restore Kashmir's special status. Modi's government is expected to definitely reject the demand as the scrapping of special status was a key BJP plank for decades.

There was no immediate reaction from the federal government on the resolution.

The troubled region, where separatist militants have fought security forces since 1989, elected an opposition alliance to power last month in the first polls in a decade.

India's only Muslim-majority territory, Jammu and Kashmir has been at the centre of a territorial dispute with Pakistan since the neighbours gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by both India and Pakistan, which have also fought two of their three wars over the region.

(Reporting by Fayaz Bukhari; Writing by Tanvi Mehta, Editing by YP Rajesh and Clarence Fernandez)