Kashmir gets a largely powerless government 5 years after India stripped its special status

SRINAGAR, India (AP) — Leaders of Kashmir’s biggest political party were sworn into office Wednesday to run a largely powerless government after the first local election since India stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah will be the region’s chief minister after his party won the most seats in the three-phased election. It has support from India's main opposition Congress party, although Congress decided not to be a part of the new government for now.

The vote was Kashmir's first in a decade and the first since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s long-held semi-autonomy in 2019. The National Conference staunchly opposed the move, and its victory is seen as a referendum against the Modi government's changes.

Lt. Gov. Manoj Sinha, New Delhi’s top administrator in Kashmir, administered the oaths of office to Abdullah and the five members of his council of ministers in a ceremony under tight security at a lakeside venue in the region’s main city of Srinagar. Some of India’s top opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party, attended.

However, there will be a limited transfer of power from New Delhi to the local government as Kashmir will remain a “union territory” — directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament as its main legislator. Kashmir’s statehood would have to be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states of India.

India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.

Kashmir’s last assembly election in 2014 brought to power Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, the first time ruled in a coalition with the local Peoples Democratic Party. T he government collapsed in 2018, after the BJP withdrew from the coalition and New Delhi took the region under its direct control.

A year later, the federal government downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. The move — which largely resonated in India and among Modi supporters — was mostly opposed in Kashmir as an assault on its identity and autonomy amid fears that it would pave the way for demographic changes in the region.

The region has since been on edge with civil liberties curbed and media freedoms restricted.

Like on election days, authorities on Wednesday limited access of foreign media to the oath ceremony and denied press credentials to most journalists working with international media, including The Associated Press, without citing any reason.

In the recently concluded election, the National Conference won 42 seats, mainly from the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of the anti-India rebellion, while the BJP secured 29 seats, all from the Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu. The Congress succeeded in six constituencies.

Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.

India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.

Experts say the new government, stripped of all the essential powers, would face a daunting task to fulfil its election promises against huge public expectations to resist the 2019 changes and the federal government’s tight control.

Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the region’s political vacuum of the last few years will not vanish with the polls alone.

“The Modi government should build on it by restoring full statehood and empowering the government,” said Donthi. “Otherwise, it will intensify disaffection and is a set up for failure.”

Modi and his powerful home minister, Amit Shah, have repeatedly stated that the region’s statehood will be restored after the election, without specifying a timeline. However, they vowed to block any move aimed at undoing the 2019 changes but promised to help in the region’s economic development.

For the new chief minister, meanwhile, it's going to be a tightrope walk.

“As a pro-India politician at the helm of this powerless administration, Omar Abdullah knows his limitations,” Donthi said. “He would be looking at his job as a buffer to moderate the worst instincts of New Delhi, but he would be clutching at straws."

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Paramilitary soldiers stand guard outside the venue of swearing in ceremony of ministers of Kashmir's local government on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Paramilitary soldiers stand guard outside the venue of swearing in ceremony of ministers of Kashmir's local government on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Paramilitary soldiers stand guard outside the venue of swearing in ceremony of ministers of Kashmir's local government on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

Supporters of Indian National Congress and National Conference party celebrate early leads in election outside a counting center on the outskirts of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Mukhtar Khan)

Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) party leader Omar Abdullah, standing in car shakes hands with supporters as he celebrates his victory in the election for a local government in Indian controlled Kashmir, Budgam, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Dar Yasin)

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Officials from an international security group founded to counter Western alliances met in Pakistan's capital on Wednesday to discuss how to boost security cooperation and economic ties.

The meeting of the heads of the council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization began with opening remarks from the host country's leader, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, whose government is struggling against insurgencies and one of the country's worst economic crises.

SCO was founded in 2001 by China and Russia to counter Western alliances. Other members include Iran, India, Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Sharif thanked the guests for attending, saying “your presence here today underscores our shared commitment to fulfilling the aspirations of our people to ensure collective security and to enhance mutually beneficial cooperation for sustainable development and prosperity of the SCO region.”

Sharif also called for a peaceful Afghanistan, and said its soil should not be used for violence against any country.

Sharif's remarks came amid a surge in violence for which Pakistan blames the militants who are based in Afghanistan. However, Kabul has denied the charge, with Afghanistan's Taliban government saying it does not allow anyone to use its soil for violence against any country, including Pakistan.

Pakistan deployed troops and additional police in Islamabad to ensure security during the SCO meeting. The measures virtually locked down the capital, making it difficult even for ambulances to pass through.

The SCO meetings came more than a week after two Chinese engineers were killed in a suicide bombing outside the airport in Karachi, the capital of southern Sindh province.

An outlawed separatist group, which opposes Chinese-funded projects in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the attack. Thousands of Chinese are currently working on projects related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a global endeavor aimed at reconstituting the Silk Road and linking China to all corners of Asia.

In Pakistan, it has been billed as a massive development program that will bring new prosperity to the South Asian nation.

Among those attending the SCO meeting were Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and the prime ministers of Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Mongolia.

Sharif said the next meeting of SCO will be held in Russia in 2025.

Authorities were expected to release a joint statement later Wednesday,

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, left, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, center, and Mongolian Prime Minister Luvsannamsrain Oyun-Erdene pose for a photo on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of Governments Summit in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (Roman Naumov, Sputnik, Government Pool Photo via AP)

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, right, and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin pose for a photo on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of Governments Summit in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (Roman Naumov, Sputnik, Government Pool Photo via AP)

Chinese Premier Li Qiang, left, and Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin pose for a photo on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Council of Heads of Governments Summit in Islamabad, Pakistan, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (Alexander Miridonov, Sputnik, Government Pool Photo via AP)